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A Hilton Head, S.C., man's elaborate candlelight wedding proposal resulted in the death of 60 endangered sea turtles. We knew it was only a matter of time before one of these ridiculous question-poppings got out of hand.The unnamed man lit about 150 luminaries and stuck them on the beach in the shape of a giant heart. Unfortunately, it's hatchling season, and 60 endangered sea turtles were also on the beach, emerging from their eggs to head towards the ocean. Turtles find their way to the ocean by the light of the moon -- with the glow from the gigantic heart being bright enough to spot from 300 feet away, the turtles could not find the ocean and all but one, which is not expected to survive, died. Many of them circled around the lights trying to find the water and were eaten by crabs. Others headed toward lagoons and backyards and died.
Patrolling volunteers came upon the couple while they were still celebrating and gave them quite a talking-to, and they've reportedly expressed some remorse, so clearly they aren't entirely evil. We're not superstitious per se, but if rain on your wedding day is bad luck, we wonder what dozens of dead baby-animal carcasses littering your proposal portends for your marriage.
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Wednesday 07 October
By Roberta Hill
I live close to where this incident happened. They should have been fined. They never even cleaned up their mess.
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Wednesday 07 October
By missy
Well maybe he wasn't aware of the turtle thing give him a break!
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Wednesday 07 October
By Julie
There is a picture of Mary Poppins here, but what does that have to do with this story? The only thing they have in common are turtles.
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Wednesday 07 October
By Natalie
Maybe he was trying to be different/ romantic- but find out from someone what the circumstances are before you go and do something stupid like that- I really hoped they were fined, and they should do something to help protect the turtles, so it doesn't happen again!!!
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Saturday 10 October
By Hummy
Ouch, that sucks!
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Wednesday 04 November
By Tarryn
..just devestating and completely heart breaking!!! ....I'm speachless, I understand the guy maybe didn't know... but surely people living in the region where baby turtles hatch every year should pay attention to the wild life around them and be aware of endangered species in their home towns. It was a silly choice on his part and I'm sure the couple are haunted by the outcome of their tried romantic night...
But come on... is it not our duty as humans to know whats going on with wildlife in our towns and pay carefull attention!
An absolute loss to loose 60 baby turtles.. even 1 is a great loss for such a beautiful spiritual endangered species!
I read this story and my heart just broke. I know they didn't mean for it to happen but come on! How do you not know there are endangered species on your beaches!
A clear example of our ignorance and lack of responsibility to be actively involved with what is going on with our planet..
There's no excuse for what happened... a thousand fines would never come near to the lives that we're lost. Very sad... very stupid!
Our earth is battling as it is... then you read this.
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Sunday 29 November
By Aiden
A baby turtle not being able to tell the difference between the moon and a glowing paper sack is natural selection at work. That man just saved the world from having to endure even more generations of retarded turtles by weeding those ones out of the gene pool.
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Thursday 10 December
By J
If we'd just follow your advice for our species, we wouldn't have to deal with "retarded" individuals like yourself.
Wednesday 05 May
By Joe
This story is rediculous! Obviously written by a moron! Only .01 percent, that's 1 in 1000 baby sea turtles that hatch actually make it to the water anyway. Who's to say that the 60 that died would have made it? I say it's a lucky thing that 2 of them did make it. Statistacally speaking and based on what we know, it is more likely that the man's actions prompted a higher than normal percentage of the turtles making it. I can't stand these stinking tree huggers!
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Wednesday 05 May
By Amanda
Just because they have low odds doesn't make this okay. It's because of those odds that every single one deserves a chance and is incredibly important.
I vacation once a year to a beach a little ways north of Hilton Head. Everywhere you go when it's close to hatching season has notices up. Lights out at the beach! I've never met a person down there who didn't know.
Whether he was from the area or not, lame idea. Those 60 turtles mattered. Extreme environmentalists are a problem, yes. So is not caring at all.
Thursday 06 May
By Non-Tree hugging liberal
Making up statistics? typical.
Thursday 06 May
By jessica
i know this is an old story, but i just read it. in my opinion this was not anything intentional of the proposer. i think for the most part it was a little bit of a lack of common sense. perhaps the man should have asked the town or someone for permission before doing something this big, at least to inform someone what was going on. and if not that, then maybe have at least done a little research to make sure it's safe to be "candle-season" [i.e., no current limitations on beach traffic or something], he may have realized another time or place would have been better. and while it's true that only a certain percentage of baby sea turtles survive, it is still sad that none of these ones were really given the chance to make it. a stern talking-to seems appropriate; perhaps a fine depending on the local laws [i.e. if he should legally have gotten permission to do this, for whatever reason it may be]. seeing as how they were endangered turtles, a fine may still be appropriate even if there weren't any rules legally being broken. but i do realize that there was no harm intended and this was not any sort of malicious proposal.
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Thursday 06 May
By jessica
and to aiden [again, i realize it is an old post], it's not a matter of the turtles seeing the /moon/ as the moon, it's a matter of them following the light, which is reflected off the water and happens to be the moon. they don't see it as a moon, they just see light and follow it. i could imagine it would be very difficult for something which is probably smaller or about the size of just one of those candles [depending on the kind of candle] to emerge in the middle of or very close to a hundred and fifty candles, which are all emitting light, and then be able to find exactly which light they needed to follow. they probably couldn't even see the ocean's moon light at that point. so, while i realize you posted more as a joke than out of seriousness, you have to remember that their evolution is to follow the [usually] one source of light they see to the ocean, not to pick out a moon from amidst what must seem like a million lights to them.
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Thursday 13 May
By Alison
Rain on your wedding day is good luck. This, however, is a direct message that this man should not produce any offspring.
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