Cyclones and floods ravaged Australia earlier this year, and now the impact on the local wildlife is rearing its head. Sea turtles and dugongs are washing ashore in astounding numbers lately. From the Telegraph:

Now naturalists fear that up to 1,500 dugongs – a species of sea cows – and 6,000 turtles along the Reef are likely to die in the coming months because their main food source, sea grass, which grows on the ocean floor, was largely wiped out by the floods and cyclone.

In some places the plants were ripped from the seabed by currents created by the storms and in others they were inundated under silt and soil washed out from the land by the torrential rains.

Beachgoers have reported stumbling across groups of turtles in shallow waters near Townsville – only to discover they were dead or dying.

"This is a long-term environmental disaster," said Dr Ellen Ariel, a turtle expert at James Cook University.

"It is not like an oil spill where you can clean the water and move on. It is such a large stretch of coastline... We have had mass strandings of turtles. The turtles are sick and starving and can't go on any longer. They don't have anywhere to go."

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says it expects more dugongs to die than in any previous event.

Hurricane Irene was no where near as devastating as we thought it might be, but that doesn't diminish the impact on the east coast Sea turtle populations. From Pilot Online:

One-third of the sea turtle nests buried in the beaches of the Outer Banks were destroyed by Hurricane Irene, and the number could rise if remaining nests fail to hatch, but that's just nature taking its course, biologists said this week.

Loggerhead and green sea turtles laid 147 nests on National Park Service beaches from Ocracoke north, the second highest number on record. Seventy-eight of those hatched before the storm.

Of the 69 remaining when the hurricane hit, 45 were lost, said Britta Muiznieks, wildlife biologist for Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Beginning on the Sunday after the storm, the remaining nests were checked, and it appears that 20 still have live eggs, she said. However, saltwater inundation and extra layers of sand may have harmed them.

What is left for kids to paint these days? I guess the old train trellis is no longer cool, because according to TheDestinLog.com, turtles are coming into Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge in increasing numbers.

A woman who lives off of Beach Drive in Destin discovered two eastern box turtles with their shells painted — one had the No. 3 on it, while the other paint job couldn’t be identified.

[....]

“One might think this is cute and harmless, however, it can adversely affect the health of these animals. And, since we don't know exactly the purpose of these numbers, we are concerned about what other harassment the turtles may be exposed to,” the refuge’s Facebook page stated. “This entire shell structure is absorbent and if the outer keratin is breached by infection or injury, the turtle can lose its protection and infection can proceed into the bony layer and the body cavity, threatening the turtle's life"

And in staying with the idea to save the best for last, baby Sea Turtles were released to the Gulf. From Bradenton.com:

Volunteers with Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch on Monday released about 100 baby green sea turtles to the Gulf of Mexico.

The hatchlings had been born the night before, and volunteers were able to rescue them before they became disoriented by nearby lights.

The nest was the first in at least 11 years to be laid by a green turtle. All but one of the more than 140 nests recorded on Anna Maria Island this year were laid by loggerhead turtles.