Turtle Power!

Watching a baby turtle make its mad rush to the ocean is one of the many magical moments that exist on Earth. Running on nothing but instinct, they seek the ocean like their lives depended on it. However, it is closer to the other way around. For most species of sea turtle the survival rate is about 1/1000. Sadly, the global populations of many sea turtle species is dropping to dangerously low levels. This is mostly the result of commercial tuna fishing, loss of suitable nesting sites, and egg poaching for sale as a delicacy.                                                                                                                    I recently had the opportunity to visit a turtle sanctuary on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. Near Monterrico, the beach resort town for rich Guatemalans, is the biggest turtle sanctuary in Guatemala. Leatherback and Olive Ridley turtles arrive year round, but mostly between the months of August and September. Leatherback turtles, the second largest reptile in the world, are now endangered, and nesting is now quite rare (only two reported times at this site last year). Even the Olive Ridley, the most abundant sea turtle, has experienced a serious drop in population, and is now considered vulnerable.

                                                        As the sun was setting a bale of young hatchlings were released into the ocean. If they are kept for a few days after hatching they become stronger, but if they are kept for more than two weeks they will loose their instinct to make for the ocean. I was able to ´adopt´ a turtle for a small donation to the foundation and release it myself. For such little turtles they were so strong. Their black, rubbery flippers struggled against me with astonishing strength. I tried to make him rest for the big journey ahead of him. Whenever I turned by body or hand, he would re-align himself to be facing the ocean. He was anxious to get going.

Her you can see little Timmy making a run for the ocean.

So I set little Timmy down amongst his 100 or so brothers and sisters and wished him good luck. He would need it. When he reached the water he got wiped out by a wave and dragged back into the sea. He was on his way. All things going well, and if he was a she, he would come back to this very beach in many years time and lay his own eggs. If hatchlings are released directly into the sea they will generally not come back to the same beach. That few minutes of charging down the beach is enough to orientate them enough to return, no matter how far afield they go.

That night I went with a guide from the sanctuary to search for mothers arriving to lay their eggs. A famous characteristic of the Olive Ridley turtle is how they arrive en mas for laying eggs. These groups, called arribadas, can number in the hundreds. I was not lucky enough to witness this spectacle, but when I had almost given up hope of seeing any, we saw one. A distinct trail led up from the water to the beach above. We had to wait for the turtle to finish digging the nest before we went to watch, otherwise we might disturb her, causing her to abandon her attempt and come back the following night to try again. Once they start laying the eggs, however, they go into a trance and are very difficult to disturb. She was a medium sized one, weighing no more than 50 kgs and being no more than 70 cms in length. She was beautiful.  

After laying about 100 ping-pong ball sized eggs, they were collected by the guide to be incubated in the nursery and then released, the same as the ones earlier that evening. The turtle then filled in the nest, and compacted the ground by repeatedly dropping her heavy body on it. She then cleaned up the site with her big flippers, trying to leave no trace of the nest site for predators. She then made her way back to the ocean. She was hit by a big wave, and then disappeared under the water, where she would again be a graceful swimmer with no resemblance to the cumbersome creature she is on land. I was so grateful to have witnessed this miracle of life.

 

While I was not lucky enough to see a mas arribada, this is what they can look like.

Turtles nesting on Escobilla, Oaxaca, Mexico