When the baby sea turtles are ready to hatch, (after 60 days) they must crawl their way out of the nest and toward the ocean. The baby sea turtles called hatchlings, begin to crawl away from shadows toward the light of the moon and its reflection on the ocean.

The babies are so small that anyone could fit one into the palm of their hand. Because of their size, the turtles easily fall prey to larger animals, such as birds, ghost crabs, and foxes. Sometimes lights from restaurants and hotels confuse baby turtles on the beach and they go the wrong way away from the ocean. This makes them easier to be eaten or to dry up from the hot sun.
Researchers predict that only one in 4,000 loggerhead hatchlings make it to the ocean, so the babies that do are extremely lucky. When they finally make it to the sea, they float around in the deep water and eat plankton, which are tiny plants and animals in the sea.

As sea turtles grow older they eat different types of fish. The leather backs eat mostly jellyfish, loggerheads primarily eat shellfish, and both types of ridley turtles eat crabs and other bottom dwelling shellfish. Green sea turtles are herbivores or plant eaters, and hawksbills mainly eat sponges. The baby sea turtles' shells finally harden when they are about a year old. The sea turtles navigate through the ocean waters along the same patterns for most of their lives. The male turtles never return to land, but the females come back to lay her eggs sometime between May and August.

The ongoing development of Georgia's beaches puts our sea turtle population at risk. Sea turtles are having trouble finding places to nest peacefully. They are also affected by pollution. Sometimes, they may mistake trash for food and eat it and die. Commercial fishing nets are also killing our sea turtles. They often get stuck in nets and cannot get out. These problems combined with boating accidents are causing a decline in our sea turtle population.

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