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| HEADING FROM THE DINGHY TO THE BUS |
Thursday turned out to be a very long day. After a very, very, very long walk to take care of arrangements for leaving the boat in Prickly Bay for Sept & October, we made our way back via Budget Marine & Ace Hardware. The road runs up & down hills, through busy city streets & quiet neighborhoods. By the time we arrived back to It's Perfect we had just enough time to rest a couple of hours before it was time to dinghy to the dock & await the bus to take us to the far northern end of the island, Levera Beach.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMaeBqY1hco I found this on YouTube, the film was made during a rare daytime visit by a Leatherback turtle to the Levera Beach nesting sight. Gives you a much more realistic view than the pictures I was able to take.
Turtle watching tours at Levera Beach provide a rare opportunity to observe this critically endangered turtle. The tours are made available as part of Ocean Spirits' an ongoing research and monitoring program. These nighttime tours enable visitors to observe first hand the nesting habits of these huge wonderful creatures. Grenada has the second largest population in the Caribbean of the Leatherback turtle.
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| Leatherback turtle egg, a little smaller than a tennis ball |
We boarded one of the two small buses along with 26 other cruisers & began our more than 2 hour trip north. As dark closed in we drove along the very narrow main road passing through the small villages that dot the mountains along the way. The traffic was very heavy, the winding roads were sometimes only wide enough for one vehicle to pass at a time. Small villages are built straight up the side of the mountains, some of the homes front doors opened directly beside the main road. People were walking along the narrow road carrying babies & small children, talking to neighbors & going about their evening routines as the traffic whizzed by. There were vendors along the way selling fruit & cooking food for sale, as music filled the air around them.
By the time we reached Levera & stopped at the Turtle Conservatory to meet with our guides it was already well past 8pm & very dark. As we gathered, our guides gave us a little history of these magnificent turtles & a few rules that we had to follow. Only red lights would be allowed on the beach & talking was to be kept to a minimum. We were to stay in a group until our guide was told there was a turtle on the beach & they would then lead us up the beach to the nesting area.
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| RESCUED HATCH LING READY FOR HIS FIRST DIP IN THE SEA |
These huge turtles do not always return to the beach where they hatch to lay their eggs unlike most large sea turtles. This is the end of the nesting season which runs from April to August. While planning this excursion we were concerned that we might not be fortunate enough to see one.
We pulled into the parking area & began our trek up the beach. We soon learned they were releasing a group of baby turtles just ahead. The eggs normally hatch during the night & the babies make there way into the sea in the dark. The research program has oceanographers that monitor the beach every night during the season keeping track of nests & hatch lings. The babies they were releasing were part a nest that at daybreak had eggs still hatching, so they were scooped up & detained in a cool moist container until the dark settled in again. If they try to make there way into the sea in daylight they are usually eaten by the seabirds before reaching the water.
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| THESE TINY TURTLES SCRAMBLE ACROSS THE BEACH & INTO THE OCEAN SOON AFTER HATCHING |
We arrived just as the container was emptied onto the beach & the tiny turtles began their long trek down to the water. We followed their slow progress with red flash lights. After about 30 min. all of the 21 turtles finally made it into the water, a few being washed up & making their way down again. The word was spread there was a nesting turtle on far end of the beach. We quickly assembled & were off.
We arrived on the far end of the beach under a black star filled sky, the ocean waves were gently breaking onto the white sand beach. I had no idea how truly humbling the sight of this immense turtle laboring on the beach to dig her nest would be. With only red lights it was hard grasp her true size. She had been digging for a while before we arrived & her nest was about halfway excavated. They dig down more than 24 inches into the sand with their back flippers to make a round bottomed hole in which to lay their eggs. These turtles are very tolerant of quiet humans, bright lights & noise will sometimes frighten them into aborting their eggs instead of nesting.
She struggled for another hour after we arrived before she decided it was deep enough. The two young oceanographers leaned into the hole & caught each egg as they came out. This is done to log the quantity of yoked & non yoked eggs that are laid. She laid 105 yoked & 38 non yoked eggs before she began the task of covering & camouflaging the nest. Out of 105 yoked eggs about 50 to 60pct will hatch. In dry weather more females hatch & in wet weather more males are hatched, so these eggs will produce more female baby turtles this season. One out of 1000 will live to become adults.
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| SHE IS ALMOST FINISHED DIGGING YOU CAN SEE THE LARGE HOLE SHE HAS MAD FOR HER NEST |
She worked very hard & from a distance you could hear her labored breathing. By the time she was finished & covering the nest, sand was flying through the air as she flung it behind her with her front flippers. We watched her for more than 2 1/2 hours before she finally turned around & slowly made her way toward her home in the blue Atlantic ocean.
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| SHE BECOMES STILL AS SHE BEGINS TO LAY EGGS |
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| CATCHING & COUNTING EGGS |
While she was laying her eggs, her tag was logged & she was measured. She was 6ft 4in from nose to tail & she probably weighed about 1,400 pounds. Because of her size they estimated her to be around 40 years old. She may come to this beach as many as 8 or 9 times to lay her eggs in one season, but she may not return to a beach to nest for 2 to 4 more years. A large male may measure over 7ft & weigh over 2,200 pounds.
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| THE RESEARCHER PLACED AN NEW EGG ON THE SAND FOR PICTURES AS SHE CONTINUED TO COUNT |
The moon was shining on the water & most of us were speechless by the time the first waves broke over her at the edge of the beach. She worked her way slowly out into the surf & finally the water covered her, she surfaced one more time for a deep breath of air & sank below the waves for the last time. She will travel with the currents, through the oceans of the world. They have been found as far north as Norway & Alaska & south as far as the Cape of Good Hope & New Zealand always in search of their favorite food, jelly fish. Males never make their way onto land again after they are hatched.
This was an experience we will never forget & is one of the most amazing things we have ever witnessed. An opportunity like this is not to be missed.
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| MEASURING THE WIDTH OF HER SHELL HER HEAD IS HUGE |
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