Baby Boom for Endangered Turtles, as Beach Is Closed Because of Corona

97 critically endangered sea turtles have hatched on a beach in Brazil that was deserted because of the Coronavirus shutdown.

The hawksbill sea turtle babies might not have made it to the ocean at a crowded beach. They were only watched by the government workers of Paulista, a town in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco, who also took the picture.

Brazil’s Tamar conservation project, which protects sea turtles, tells the Guardian that hawksbills lay their eggs along the country’s north-eastern coast and are considered a critically endangered species.

They can grow up to 110cm in length, weigh 85kg and owe their Portuguese name, which translates as “comb turtles”, to the fact that their shells were once widely used to make combs and frames for glasses in earlier times.