Turtles

Racing his Jeep down a deserted beach by moonlight, Francisco Vadarez suddenly spotted the giant turtle tracks. He skidded to a halt, hoping he had arrived before the hueveros, or egg poachers. Following the weaving turtle tread to a sand-covered nest just up from the water, the marine biologist dug down with his hands and found them: 96 pingpong-ball-sized eggs, left minutes before by a 3-foot-long olive ridley marine turtle.

For years, fishermen traded tall tales about the beast who lived at the bottom of the lake. He was huge, those who had seen him agreed, pulling ducks underwater and stealing fish from reel lines. Old Bob, the giant alligator snapping turtle of Fullerton's Laguna Lake, was the stuff of legend. In September, workers dredging the lake as part of a restoration project found truth in the rumors as they netted the 4-foot-long, 100-pound turtle. But as quickly as Old Bob surfaced, he disappeared again.

The turtle tank at Nam Hoa Fish Market is empty, but not to worry: The manager of this bustling Chinatown store says he has plenty in back. "Big ones," he says, spreading his hands as wide as a Christmas turkey. He nods to a worker, who slides a large, waxed-cardboard box from a stack behind the counter and strips off the lid. Inside is a squirming burlap bag, from which he dumps two 15-pound softshell turtles that hit the concrete with a clop, then flail helplessly on their backs.

He lurked in the lake's muddy bottom for decades. He was huge, those who had seen him testified, with fierce claws and powerful jaws. How the creature got there was a matter of conjecture, but everyone agreed on one thing: Bump into him at your own peril. Scotland may have its Loch Ness monster. But in Fullerton, the legend is of Old Bob, the giant alligator snapping turtle of Laguna Lake.

A strain of salmonella carried by small pet turtles has sickened more than 100 people and hospitalized at least 24 nationwide in the largest recorded outbreak of its kind, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. Cases have been reported in 33 states, but mostly in California, Texas, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Most of the patients have been children. No one has died in the latest outbreak, which began in August.

Investigators who opened the refrigerator at a seafood warehouse this summer discovered they had arrived too late to save 643 turtles choked in burlap bags or crushed in plastic containers. Red-eared turtles, sliders, Mississippi mud turtles, snapping turtles and others were found dead or dying, maggot-infested, with gaping wounds and missing limbs. But 724 more were still alive.

Call it the "March of the Turtles." Because the story of how 67 wayworn turtles, flushed miles from their watery homes by winter rain, came to be rescued and returned to the wild could easily be a good fit for the silver screen. Ripped by floodwaters from the creeks and rivers where they make their homes, the powerful but shy Western pond turtles began washing up on Ventura County beaches as soon as the rain subsided in January. Many were badly banged up. A number were slimed with oil.

Malaysia is studying a plan to clone leatherback turtles, an endangered species that scientists believe once swam with dinosaurs, an official said Thursday. The Fisheries Department hopes to embark on a leatherback cloning project that could cost $9 million over the next five years, said Director-General Junaidi Che Ayub. The clones could produce hatchlings to boost the population, he said. Some biologists say the plan is impractical and unlikely to succeed.

Alan Gordon, 64, a songwriter who with his writing partner Garry Bonner penned the Turtles' No. 1 hit "Happy Together" and other catchy pop songs in the 1960s, died of cancer Nov. 22 at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. Besides "Happy Together," which topped the charts in March 1967, the songwriting duo also wrote "She'd Rather Be With Me," "You Know What I Mean" and "She's My Girl" for the Turtles, as well as "Celebrate" for Three Dog Night. On his own, Gordon wrote "My Heart Belongs to Me" for Barbra Streisand, who recorded it for her 1977 album "Streisand Superman."

The federal government on Wednesday proposed shutting down the West Coast's commercial swordfish fishing fleet, saying that too many sea turtles are being inadvertently snagged on baited hooks in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

The turtle tank at Nam Hoa Fish Market is empty, but not to worry: The manager of this bustling Chinatown store says he has plenty in back. "Big ones," he says, spreading his hands as wide as a Christmas turkey. He nods to a worker, who slides a large, waxed-cardboard box from a stack behind the counter and strips off the lid. Inside is a squirming burlap bag, from which he dumps two 15-pound softshell turtles that hit the concrete with a clop, then flail helplessly on their backs.

Alan Gordon, 64, a songwriter who with his writing partner Garry Bonner penned the Turtles' No. 1 hit "Happy Together" and other catchy pop songs in the 1960s, died of cancer Nov. 22 at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. Besides "Happy Together," which topped the charts in March 1967, the songwriting duo also wrote "She'd Rather Be With Me," "You Know What I Mean" and "She's My Girl" for the Turtles, as well as "Celebrate" for Three Dog Night. On his own, Gordon wrote "My Heart Belongs to Me" for Barbra Streisand, who recorded it for her 1977 album "Streisand Superman."

Re "Up to their gills in freshness," Column One, June 23 I was nauseated by the article on Asian live fish markets: "He passes splayed fish heads and turtles with their shells broken open to expose red meat -- soup ingredients." Were these live turtles with their shells broken open? That would be appalling animal cruelty. If it is true, the Humane Society needs to close that place down now. Laurie Galvan Long Beach

A strain of salmonella carried by small pet turtles has sickened more than 100 people and hospitalized at least 24 nationwide in the largest recorded outbreak of its kind, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. Cases have been reported in 33 states, but mostly in California, Texas, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Most of the patients have been children. No one has died in the latest outbreak, which began in August.

Just before daybreak, Arcelio Fuentes stands on the beach and empties a basket holding 93 baby sea turtles into the churning surf. Some of them are snatched by preying sea gulls and frigate birds, but most make it out into Montijo Gulf to begin their mysterious, thousand-mile journey to the Galapagos Islands and beyond.

Malaysia is studying a plan to clone leatherback turtles, an endangered species that scientists believe once swam with dinosaurs, an official said Thursday. The Fisheries Department hopes to embark on a leatherback cloning project that could cost $9 million over the next five years, said Director-General Junaidi Che Ayub. The clones could produce hatchlings to boost the population, he said. Some biologists say the plan is impractical and unlikely to succeed.

At least three dozen young sea turtles are getting a little vacation under heat lamps after being rescued from an arctic blast that caused the water temperature in an arm of the Gulf of Mexico to plummet 18 degrees in 48 hours. The turtles were left comatose by the rapid temperature drop this week in the shallow bay where they feed. Rescuers feared the cold would kill the turtles or make them too sluggish to avoid sharks.

A 176-year-old tortoise that was possibly one of the world's oldest living creatures, and believed by some to have once been in Charles Darwin's possession, has died of heart failure. The giant tortoise, known as Harriet, died at the Queensland-based Australia Zoo owned by "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin and his wife, Terri. Irwin said Saturday that Harriet's death was "not only a great loss for the world but a very sad day for my family. She was a grand old lady."

The bodies of 80 dead turtles washed ashore in Oaxaca, Mexico, last weekend, victims of poachers who eviscerated the animals at sea for their eggs, the Mexican environmental and natural resources ministry said. The bodies of the turtles, some measuring 3 feet long, were found on Escobilla beach, the most important nesting ground for olive ridleys, one of seven species of marine turtles that nest on Mexican beaches.

Call it the "March of the Turtles." Because the story of how 67 wayworn turtles, flushed miles from their watery homes by winter rain, came to be rescued and returned to the wild could easily be a good fit for the silver screen. Ripped by floodwaters from the creeks and rivers where they make their homes, the powerful but shy Western pond turtles began washing up on Ventura County beaches as soon as the rain subsided in January. Many were badly banged up. A number were slimed with oil.