The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will coordinate the plan that calls for the collection of some 70,000 turtle eggs in up to 800 nests buried on beaches across the Florida Panhandle and Alabama.
It's never been done before on a such a massive scale, but experts agree that doing nothing could lead to unprecedented deaths.
The eggs will be taken to a warehouse at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where they will hatch, then be released into oil-free waters the Atlantic Ocean. While officials acknowledge many may die in the process, they say there is no other option.
