Wildlife Wednesday: Tinker Bell and Marina Get Ready for The Great Sea Turtle Race! The 8th Annual Tour de Turtles Comes to Disney’s Vero Beach Re

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Summer is the time of year when sea turtles visit Disney’s Vero Beach Resort to lay their eggs on our sandy beaches. But where do the turtles go when they finish nesting? Do they remain offshore of our Florida beaches? Do they go to Cuba, the Bahamas or swim thousands of miles to South America? Get ready to follow our turtles that are part of The Sea Turtle Conservancy’s Tour de Turtles, the great turtle race that helps us understand their migratory routes!

Sea turtles make an amazing journey from their nesting beaches to their foraging grounds, where they will spend one to two years feeding before they return to Florida to lay their eggs again.

Disney Vacation Club members chose the names Tinker Bell and Marina for this year’s turtles, and guests at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort will meet them at Tour de Turtles August 1. Starting at 7 a.m., guests can watch as we attach a satellite transmitter to the shells of the turtles so we can track their movements.

You can follow their ocean journey on TourdeTurtles.org. Will Tinker Bell win the race with a little help from her stash of pixie dust? Or will Marina, with her knowledge of the underwater world, use her experience to navigate the ocean currents all the way to the finish line? Will they join former Tour de Turtles participants Anna near the Florida Keys; Elsa and Carrie just north of Cuba; Peach, Pearl, Claire and Lumière in the Gulf Coast of Florida; or Lightning McQueen in the Bahamas? We will find out soon!

Did you know?

• Each turtle swimming in the Tour de Turtles is an ambassador to raise awareness about a specific threat to sea turtles.
• Because sea turtle hatchlings rely on natural starlight to find their way to the ocean, many are steered off course by artificial light sources. Remember, sea turtles dig the dark! Tinker Bell is the perfect fairy to share the importance of turning off your lights at night!
• Sea turtles will often confuse their favorite foods with trash floating in the ocean. Tasty jellyfish look a lot like a plastic bag or a balloon floating in the ocean, so Marina will share her tips on to keep our oceans safe for sea turtles on TourdeTurtles.org!

Marina and Tinker Bell will be doing their part to help sea turtles, so let’s join them in keeping our oceans clean and free of litter and our beaches dark so that the turtles can safely return to water to begin their ocean journey! Do your part, recycle plastic, pick up trash wherever you live and remember, all waterways lead to the ocean!

Wildlife Wednesday: Tinker Bell and Marina Get Ready for The Great Sea Turtle Race! The 8th Annual Tour de Turtles Comes to Disney’s Vero Beach Resort by Anne Savage, Ph.D.: Originally posted on the Disney Parks Blog

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