Sea turtles are just an iconic species when we think about the health of our oceans and the world oceans.

They're very endearing.

When a nest emerges, the hatchlings come spilling out, they face a gauntlet to get to the water.

There's birds and crabs and lights to disorient them, all sorts of things.

How do these hatchlings find their way into the sea?

It's the light that they're really looking for. It's that ambient celestial moonlight

that helps them figure out the right way to go. And so wherever that brightest horizon is,

that's where the turtles are going to head.

It is an arduous journey to the sea for baby sea turtles no bigger than the palm of your hand.

I'm Ann Thompson and this is NBC on Earth.

There we go.

Tanya Long is a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

She oversees turtle nesting beaches and sports a tattoo of a sea turtle on her foot. She says many of the scientists in the management program have them.

It's a bombing night in Coco Beach and she shows up with a cooler.

So let's see who are we, what we got in here.

All right.

So we just have a styrofoam cooler here with our hatchlings.

How many are in the...

We have 13 tonight.

Lucky 13.

Lucky 13, exactly.

And how old are these hatchlings?

...