Turtle Watch

First, a gratuitous Penny video.

Dan, Maria, Matt and I went with some other friends to see the sea turtles nesting last night. It was an amazing experience! Grenada is one of the few nesting areas for Leatherback turtles. They are the largest turtle and the largest living reptile in the world. Saying they can get six feet long doesn't quite convey their hugeness. Think of your standard box turtle or pond turtle with its teeny little head and giant shell. The leatherbacks we saw last night had heads the same size as ours. We overheard the measurement of the shell length on one animal last night and it was bigger than some adults in our group. You can get some idea of size from videos of leatherbacks in the Pacific at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The turtles like to nest at the very northernmost end of the island, so we had a fun nighttime drive through the rainforest and mountains. That end of the island is sparsely populated by comparison to our end, so we could see an incredible night sky (even a shooting star that fragmented as it crashed into our atmosphere). The beach was a wide soft expanse with no shadows of plants, just an upside-down rowboat. As we arrived, we could see tiny red lights ahead, the headlamps of the researchers helping to conserve this critically endangered species.

We first encountered some researchers gently placing eggs into a nest. The turtle had dug her hole so close to the surf that her nest would have gotten waterlogged when the tide came in. So once she finished her nesting, the researchers (and probably some vet students from SGU) dug a new nest and moved all her eggs further from the surf. They counted all the eggs -- did you know there are two kinds -- labeled the nest with the tag numbers from the mom and the date of laying, then covered them in sand. Some eggs are the size of tennis balls, these will become babies in 50-70 days; while others are the size of ping pong balls and act as filler to ensure airflow around the eggs and keep the babies from being crushed under the sand.

Next we saw the mom of that batch camouflaging the spot where she laid them in the first place. Here's this "small," maybe only half-ton critter, dragging itself around around a huge area so predators can't figure out where in that mess she actually laid her eggs. Leatherbacks aren't designed for land movement, so she's huffing and puffing, getting sand on people four or five feet away. She put in an amazing effort, made a huge mess and then started off to the surf. As she made a break for it, our guide allowed us to touch her shell (we weren't allowed to touch previously because we might distract/confuse/scare her). She was actually fast enough and we were tentative enough to approach such a huge creature that she made it into the water before some in the group had a chance to feel her shell.

We made our way further along the moonless beach. We could see the silhoettes of Sugarloaf, Green and Sandy Islands as gaps in the star-filled sky. The breeze off the Atlantic was had a refreshingly cool mist to it. It was my first venture in Grenada where I wore pants and long sleeves (more for bugs than for temperature, though). We couldn't use flashlights because that might confuse the turtles, but there wasn't really anything to trip on in the evenly patterned sand (though later we seemed to find a few ditches that might have been the paths of other turtles).

We soon came upon another group of researchers with a turtle who had almost finished digging out her egg pit. She cupped her impressively mobile back flippers, gently inserted them into the three-foot deep hole, smoothed the edges for a bit, then excavated a bit of sand. She alternated back feet doing this for some time. As she got into position to start laying her eggs, the researchers sprang into action, clearing space for them to lie just behind her. One lady laid on the ground with her hands cupped just under the turtle's vent to catch the eggs as they were laid. Then the eggs started coming. A turtle can lay more 80-120 eggs, and I don't think the spacer eggs are counted in that. The lady caught, counted each kind as they came out in little spurts, then gently placed them at the bottom of the nest. Other researchers got a tape measure and gauged the mom's shell length and width. They may have already tagged her before we arrived because she had labels attached to each of her rear flippers.

Since I had missed my chance earlier, I took the opportunity to touch the turtle while she was laying. After brushing off the sand she'd been flinging around, I found her smooth black shell. It's tough to describe the texture exactly because I can't think of anything quite like it. The shell wasn't cold or hot, just about air temperature. It was firm, but fleshy, kind of like a watermelon. When you look at most turtle skeletons, they closely resemble the turtle you see at the pond because the shell is all bony. Leatherbacks are called that because they don't have bony shells like most turtles. For leatherbacks, their shells are tough rubbery skin with small bony plates embedded inside.

Apparently, they have done studies to determine what exactly bothers the turtles and when they're bothered by it. So everyone is using red flashlights because they use light to navigate (light = out to sea), we were supposed to stand at the rear of the turtles so we weren't as much in her line of sight, and they keep the number of people in the group below 13 so there aren't tons of people making noise, etc. They also know there's pretty much nothing that will bother her when she's "in the zone" laying the eggs, but during digging, camouflaging and other times she needs a little more personal space. For the past couple of months, our automatic camera has refused to flash. This is terrible for indoor pictures of Penny's escapades, evening pics of flowers for my collection, etc. We figured it would be GREAT for pictures of turtles because flash is not allowed. Wouldn't you know, that was exactly when our camera chose to flash!! It was so embarassing, not to mention potentially annoying to the poor turtle. Luckily, she finished what she was doing just fine and we yelled at and hid our camera (which now appears to be functioning normally). Pictures for this blog are courtesy of NOAA, not from our unlucky shot.

As the turtle began the process of camouflaging her nest, we started to wrap up our visit. The midnight ride home through the mountains was spent discussing the wonder of what we saw. The sound of labored turtle breathing, a path lit only by starlight, the promise of hundreds of little turtles making their way to the sea. These are marathon swimmers, finding their way to Newfoundland, Africa and more over the course of their more than 100 years of life. I'd definitely recommend similar tours to anyone who's interested. It is better to go with a tour company who can provide background info, answer questions and ensure that your visit won't adversely affect these amazing creatures.