Turtle time.

Apparently I like to start my blogs with a story if I can, so here goes another.

The first time I saw a leatherback turtle nesting, I must have been about seven years old. It was in Trinidad in the Village of Matura. While there, my mom, aunt, cousins and I got to see a leatherback laying her eggs and at the same time, a nest close by also began hatching. I remember being given special permission by the tour guide to help some of the hatchlings get to the ocean, and until now that was my most memorable memory of leatherbacks.

What I remember...
(Picture from: http://natureseekers.org/gallery/photo55.html)

Two nights ago that changed, and somehow Sarah and I got to experience each working with a leatherback turtle on the same night. It was completely dark, with no moon, miserable and pouring rain when we went out. Sarah was on the first night patrol and I was on the second.

When I found her I could barely see a foot in front of my face, but the sand seemed stirred up in front of us. As the patrol leader I then had to stop the group, and try to find where the tracks were leading. I know it is hard to believe that it was so hard to find such a gi-normous creature, but it was really difficult because it was so dark.

She was already laying her eggs as we approached so I didn’t get to count the eggs, but we still got to check for tags, record measurements for her length and width, do a body check, and triangulate the nest when she was finished. Luckily, Sarah’s group ran into us as we were “working the turtle” and so her group got to watch and help a bit too.

This is what it looked like when we found her - minus the
white light.
(Picture from: http://natureseekers.org/gallery/photo20.html)

After we watched her return to the water, our groups went our separate ways. It must not have been less than 20 minutes later that we received a radio message from Sarah’s group, who had found another leatherback laying a nest further down the beach. Her turtle was at the same stage of nesting that the one I saw earlier was in, so her and her group also got to experience the same sequence of events as our group, and because we weren’t that far away, my group made it in time to see another turtle.

Now, looking back it is pretty cool to compare this moment to the one when I was seven. I definitely don’t remember the turtle being as big as it was here, but that might have been because I was so much more aware, and working so much more closely with the turtle this time. We still have to see a loggerhead and green turtle nesting, and have a lot to look forward to once the nests start to hatch!

Until nest next time…haha…