NYC Airport Invaded by Turtles, Delaying Flights.

[elleng]

About 150 turtles crawled onto the tarmac at New York's Kennedy airport Wednesday in search of beaches to lay their eggs, delaying dozens of flights, aviation authorities said.

The slow-motion stampede began about 6:45 a.m., and within three hours there were so many turtles on Runway 4L and nearby taxiways that controllers were forced to move departing flights to another runway.

"We ceded to Mother Nature," said Ron Marsico, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the airport.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/06/29/us/AP-US-Travel-Brief-Airport-Turtles.html?hp

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. That's amazing they saw them on the tarmac. Good eyes.

[elleng]

2. Yup!

The migration of diamondback terrapin turtles happens every year at Kennedy, which is built on the edge of Jamaica Bay and a federally protected park. In late June or early July the animals heave themselves out of the bay and head toward a beach to lay their eggs. . .

He said crews were loading the turtles into pickup trucks and giving them rides to the nesting beaches.

"We are trying to help wildlife out a bit here," Marsico said. "We built on the area where they were nesting for generations, so we feel incumbent to help them along the way."

[aquart]

3. Turtles not using good sense?

They look for places to lay their eggs, then go off and leave them. Turtle did that on our lawn. Took the other wild creatures one day to find those eggs.

[Submariner]

4. Enjoy the Airport Migration while it lasts

When the radiation spilling into the sea in Japan reaches us....well you know what that will mean for Kennedy departures. Very exciting!

[Buns_of_Fire]

8. MST3K knew how to handle that (singing)...

Gammera is really neat!
Gammera is full of meat!
We're all eating Gam-a-rah!

[gauguin57]

5. Nature is fighting back, baby!

Go turtles!

[damntexdem]

6. Oh no! Are the turtles wearing explosive underwear?

Or even worse, are they wearing DIAPERS!

;-)

[PoliticAverse]

7. Apparently they headed into NY because turtles can now marry... n/t

[BlueJazz]

9. LOL!!

:rofl:

[no limit]

11. Ahahahaha!

[Glimmer of Hope]

14. Lol! The penguins will be next.

[Wilms]

10. I'm glad they have protection status. I wouldn't trust TSA searching them.

[0rganism]

12. isn't that one of the Plagues of Egypt?

lessee...
blood, frogs, lice, flies, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, ultra-late-term abortions... nope. guess not.

Perhaps the Almighty has "other plans" for NYC?

[elleng]

13. Mebbe, but this is annual, due to location of JFK, 'planned,' kind of.