MUST WATCH: A Turtle Crawl on Cumberland

There is perhaps no journey more powerful to witness than a sea turtle’s crawl onto land to nest. Turtles travel thousands of miles to nest on the same beaches where they were born.

In 2016, Cumberland Island’s first artist-in-residence Stephen Wood observed a turtle crawling ashore on the north end of Cumberland Island and recorded this video. Later, he composed “Loggerhead,” part of a larger solo piano collection which is “composed in honor of all those in need of protection by Cumberland Island National Seashore,” says Wood.

Wood hopes that video, art, and music can help preservation: “We have many worries and fears right now concerning our ephemeral human civilization. But there are still so many who are struggling just to maintain their own natural existence—an existence of geological scale….We must be their voice. For we are the ones they need protection from.”