The school year has come to an end and it is quite a relief to have the hardest part of my service behind me. As a small vacation I went with a group of volunteers to the beach. We rented a house on the beach and relaxed for a few days. One of the highlights of the weekend was going to see the turtles. Every year around October and November the sea turtles climb onto the beach to lay their eggs in the sand. The amazing thing is that they all come to the original beach in which they were born. Unfortunately the time in which they lay the eggs is in October, which me missed by a month. I did however come just in time for the hatching of the turtle lings. It was a pretty cool experience. It was also much less regulated than it would be in the states. It was nice to see that there have been some efforts to protect the area in which they nest, since they are an endangered species.
They really had no rules other than to not take the turtles home with you, which I was quite tempted to do, since they were like little toys. As I walked out onto the beach there were circles drawn into the sand where turtles had laid their eggs. In hundreds of spots there were circles and tiny turtles climbing out of the sand. It is said that flashlights should not be used, but rather to use red lights, since once the turtles come out the white light is harsh on their eyes as well as it disorients them. Apparently they use the reflection of light off of the water to find their way. The problem with the flashlights are that no one has red light, nor do they supply anything for us to use. Light is a necessity since there are thousands of these little creatures crawling all over the place, if you have no light you will end up stepping on them.
When I say that there is little regulation the thought of them allowing us to pick them up seemed impossible. On the contrary they invited us to do so as well as take pictures, which I had imagined would not have been allowed. There was no one watching us either, we had free reign on the beach and there were no restrictions.
An interesting experience was when they let us release all of the turtles that had hatched during the day. Since naturally the success rate of a baby turtle to mature to adulthood is less than 1% due to crabs, birds and fish picking them off on their entrance into the sea. To help their odds a bit the rangers collect all the turtles that hatch during the day and then release them later in the night. So we had the honor of releasing about 100 turtles into the sea. The important thing is that they have to be released about 50 yards from the water because they have to learn the beach so they can return to lay their own eggs. It was so frustrating watching these poor things. They would flap there way to the waters edge and then a wave would come and push them back 50 feet. I had to hold back the urge to throw them into the water. It is amazing that from the moment they hatch they have to fight to survive. It was certainly an interesting spectacle to witness.
They really had no rules other than to not take the turtles home with you, which I was quite tempted to do, since they were like little toys. As I walked out onto the beach there were circles drawn into the sand where turtles had laid their eggs. In hundreds of spots there were circles and tiny turtles climbing out of the sand. It is said that flashlights should not be used, but rather to use red lights, since once the turtles come out the white light is harsh on their eyes as well as it disorients them. Apparently they use the reflection of light off of the water to find their way. The problem with the flashlights are that no one has red light, nor do they supply anything for us to use. Light is a necessity since there are thousands of these little creatures crawling all over the place, if you have no light you will end up stepping on them.
When I say that there is little regulation the thought of them allowing us to pick them up seemed impossible. On the contrary they invited us to do so as well as take pictures, which I had imagined would not have been allowed. There was no one watching us either, we had free reign on the beach and there were no restrictions.
An interesting experience was when they let us release all of the turtles that had hatched during the day. Since naturally the success rate of a baby turtle to mature to adulthood is less than 1% due to crabs, birds and fish picking them off on their entrance into the sea. To help their odds a bit the rangers collect all the turtles that hatch during the day and then release them later in the night. So we had the honor of releasing about 100 turtles into the sea. The important thing is that they have to be released about 50 yards from the water because they have to learn the beach so they can return to lay their own eggs. It was so frustrating watching these poor things. They would flap there way to the waters edge and then a wave would come and push them back 50 feet. I had to hold back the urge to throw them into the water. It is amazing that from the moment they hatch they have to fight to survive. It was certainly an interesting spectacle to witness.
