Saving the turtles one at a time

Monterrico, on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, has the good fortune of being protected by an offshore sand shelf.  This shelf holds off the rain and provides for some spectacular lightning displays from the beach.  I had pulled Erin from dinner to come sit out with me on the beach to watch one such display.  It was around 9, and as we sat in the darkness staring at the flashes, I began to hear sounds off to my left.  First a rustling, as if there was an animal moving at the edge of the beach.  At first I passed it off as one of the three dogs that called this place home.  Then, a small wave of sand flashed in the lightning.  And was that a dark area extending up the beach, or was I imagining it?  I had to be sure, so I got up and wandered down to the tideline.  I found myself standing over a dark track of upturned sand that had been made by an animal dragging itself up the beach.  I followed the track with my eyes to its end. ''Erin! You might want to see this!"

little turtles before they are released

An olive ridley sea turtle, with a shell around 65 centimeters long, was searching for a nesting site.  We watched in amazement as it decided its first location wasn't a good one and veered diagonally downhill towards us.  I went down to the tideline and traced a circle around the tracks in the sand.  This signalled to poachers that this turtle had been claimed by someone else.  I don't know how Colum found us on the beach, but he got the rest of the volunteers at the center to come out to witness the event.  By this time the turtle had found its nesting location on the beach and had settled in to digging out a nest with her back flippers.  Everyone gathered around to watch.  Neil, one of the more intense turtle-lovers at the center, took over from here.  As the turtle dug her hole, he also dug a hole from behind it, angling down to reach the chamber with the eggs.  Then, as the turtle began to lay, he would take the eggs out through this hole and place them in a collection bag.  He did this for a long time.  An Olive Ridley can take an hour to lay up to, sometimes more than, 120 eggs.  As the turtle lays her eggs she passes into a trance and will not stop until the deed is done.  Once she had finished laying Neil gave a sign and Colum signalled that it was okay to use flashlights, and turned his on to give us a better view of this amazing creature as she began to rock back and forth as she scooped sand back in to cover her now empty nest.  I reached out and touched her shell.  Once she had brought the sand up to regular levels she then used her powerful front flippers to scatter sand everywhere as she hid the location of her nest.  We all jumped back as sand flew.  Her task done, the turtle rested a minute before dragging herself down to the water.  We solemnly escorted her down the beach.  As a wave surrounded her, she lifted her flippers and silently disappeared from sight.  We all quietly walked back up the beach.  It was time to bury the eggs.

Erin holds a cutie

We entered the hatchery, which was lined with rows of markers indicating the location of previous nests.  We started a new one, and after Neil demonstrates, I take my turn.  First you dig down into the sand about a foot and a half, then hollow out the lower part like a vase.  Then you carefully place the eggs inside, counting off in threes.  About sixty eggs were placed in each nest before they were covered.  Our turtle provided 124 eggs, two nests worth to the turtle hatchery.  If the poachers had found the nest, which they usually do, our cut of that 124 would have been 12.  The rest would have been sold to be eaten.  Lucky for us that we were out on the beach at that time.  Lucky for the turtle that she chose that spot on the beach at that time.  Lucky for the center that they were able to acquire these eggs without paying for them.  Lucky all around.

so do I

***

Later, we are fortunate to enter the hatchery to find 22 recently hatched sea turtles wandering around in the darkness.  We gather up the critters into a bucket and carry them out onto the beach.  To stimulate the emergence of the turtles from the nest, we bring them high up on the beach and then tip the bucket to let them scatter as they head towards the whiteness of the waves.  As they scramble across the beach, they are collecting information to enable them to come back to this very same beach in eight years time.  No one knows exactly what happens during this imprinting process, maybe they pick up the texture and composition of the sand, smells on the beach, the magnetic current which they use to naviagate the oceans.  But that two minutes will enable them to come back here when they are grown and lay on this exact same stretch of beach.  We watch them scramble into the waves and then wait for a sufficiently powerful one to carry them off into the depths.  Only very few will survive their passage through the breakers and predators.  But a few are better than none.

The turtle hatchery

Erin says hi

Not our babies, but babies going to sea