The joy and wonder of watching a massive sea turtle crawl onto the beach and drop her soft, ping pong ball-sized eggs into a deep hole in the sand never gets old for Kate Mansfield, even after 28 years of research.

Even more fun for her is watching the faces of University of Central Florida interns seeing their first turtles and learning how to inspect them. “It’s probably one of my favorite things,” said Mansfield, director of the university’s Marine Turtle Research Group.