Last month, 82 Green sea turtles hatched at SeaWorld in San Diego, California.

The eggs hatched on Shipwreck Beach and the youngsters didn’t need any human aid to get out of their shells and into the water. The park had decided to let nature take its course by refraining from incubating the eggs or help the hatchlings emerge. SeaWorld are now planning to dig up the beach to check if any buried eggs failed to hatch.

At the moment, the baby sea turtles are roughly one month old and only weigh a few grams. They happily feed on squid, shrimp, krill and special pellets. Assistant curator of fishes Tim Downing says they are all in excellent health and that they will go on display before the end of the year.

“There is so much that is not known about sea turtles,” said Downing. “We are getting real good information on the growth rate of juveniles. They are all gaining weight and doing well. We have done some X-rays, and they are progressing just like we would expect them to.”

SeaWorld is home to 30 adult sea turtles, including four Green sea turtles – three females and one male. They have been living at SeaWorld since the 1960s and are sexually mature, so all three females may have buried eggs in the sand. Only genetic testing will be able to reveal the maternity of each baby turtle.

All seven species of sea turtle in the world are endangered or threatened, with the Green sea turtle being listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It will be up to the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether the new turtles will stay at SeaWorld and whether the adult turtles will be given opportunity to mate again next year.