We slept in today because the tides weren’t cooperating to go for another pre-dawn nest check. We went out to the beaches at 7:30am and only got maybe a third of the way through our nests before the beach became impassible. We did find that one of our nests on the north side hatched after we had checked it last night. Bobby found a hatchling from it stuck in a ghost crab hole. It looked like the crab tried to nab it and bit off more than it could chew, but the hatchling wasn’t able to fully get away. So we rescued it and released it into the ocean. Everyone came back for breakfast, and now we have free time until about 4:30, when it’ll be time to go dig rotten nests again. I may nap, I may go to the beach, I may color, I may do some work on the tile, I may inventory my clothing and organize it.
These lines in the sand are baby turtle tracks.
I wound up going to the beach for a little swim and then crashing after lunch because I didn’t feel well. Bobby found a piece of driftwood and an old machete and decided to fashion himself a surfboard. He had...limited success...but he enjoyed having a thing to occupy him.
Bobby and I had separate digs this time. His group found a total of 4 live turtles from already hatched nests, and in my group I dug the one nest where we found a live one, but she was still inside her egg with just her head sticking out.
When we checked, her yolk was already absorbed, so we just helped her out of the rest of her shell and released her. Because she was stuck under a bunch of unhatched eggs and couldn’t get out, she was still curled up inside her egg and so her front flippers didn’t go out to the side properly or forward enough.
She couldn’t go anywhere on the sand but once I put her in the water, she seemed to do okay.
She can't move her flippers forward enough to walk on the sand.
With her flippers stuck under her, she can't reach the ocean.
The waves help carry her to the ocean.
With water underneath her instead of sand, she can actually move.
She can swim, but it will always be a struggle, making her easy prey.
I know hatchlings only have one in a thousand chance of getting to adulthood, but this one has more of a chance now than if we weren’t here doing this work. If she survives, though, she'll be deformed and struggling her whole life. Poor thing, but at lease she didn't die in the nest.
A hatched nest (notice all the turtle tracks), with shells and other signs of post-hatch scavenging by critters looking for stragglers and rotten eggs.
We got back and had a little free time before supper, which was quesadillas on the grill, and quite good. I did some coloring and reading and finally got a good enough signal to post something quick before we ate, and after supper I finished the turtle picture I was working on then we played a few rounds of a couple trivia games. We went out on night patrols pretty late, 9:00pm, because of the tides. Bobby was with Darnice, Nawdane, and Carol’s group, and I was with Kris, Christine, and JoanBeth’s group.
We went south, and I found a hatchling outside one of the nests that had a depression in it. There were only his/her tracks around, so it seemed likely s/he was the first one out and that more would eventually follow. We released the turtle into the ocean and continued with the rest of our checks. On our way back, I asked to stop by and see if the nest had boiled yet. When we got there, three hatchlings were hanging out at the top of the nest but not really trying too hard to get out. I called everyone over and we waited for about 15 minutes until, with some encouragement, the nest boiled and all the hatchlings emerged and raced for the ocean. Kris said not to collect any this time around because both groups already saw boils last night and it is best to disturb them as little as possible. So we turned off even our red lights and watched by the light of the night sky the little shadows scurry over the sand and into the waves. Then we collected any stragglers and disoriented turtles and brought them closer to the ocean and once they hit the water, they were off. I decided not to try and capture this one and just enjoy it, because I took pictures of last night’s boil and Bobby got a great video of it.
On our way back to base, we see the other team flashing their lights, so we go to them to discover another boil about to be in progress. They have a nest that they have been watching for a while, and a bunch of babies are just sitting on top of it but not really going anywhere. All it takes is a little gentle encouragement and the nest boils. Both teams watch them go for the ocean and escort misguided hatchlings over debris and back in the right direction. Then we both head in for the night. We have an early start tomorrow, and a lot of nests to dig before the storm hits.
One turtle's head and flipper are sticking out, but it's just waiting.
After the tiniest amount of encouragement, the boil begins.
You can see just how many turtles are on the move now that they've gotten started.
Kris has been watching a tropical storm that has been growing out in the Atlantic all week, and it just got upgraded to a hurricane. Depending on where it is supposed to hit and when, we’ll have a lot more nests to dig and hatches to batten down. We’ll be gone by then regardless, but they don’t want all our nest coverings to get washed out to sea, and if there are stragglers in the old nests, they need to be out of the sand before the storm or they’ll drown. There’s nothing much we can do about the nests that are still awaiting hatching but hope for the best.
Woke up at 5:30am with a scratchy throat still. Went on dawn patrol anyway. No activity in the nests. We came back and had breakfast and we’ll be going out again later. I am going to read and try not to fall back asleep until then.
We went out to mark which nests had what kind of covering, and we learned how to put corrals on the nests and did a few. You have to first take the fine mesh off, then find the center of the nest with a stake and draw a circle around the nest. Then you have to dig the circle, which we used shells as shovels for. Then you stake the corrals into the moat, and fill it back in. The corrals have big enough openings to let turtles through but not most predators.
Digging the moat.
Placing the corral.
Our very sophisticated tools we used to dig the moats and then fill them with sand once we placed the fencing corrals.
After that, we had lunch, and the repair guy came to fix the hot water propane tank that goes to the kitchen, and he brought his dog with him, an old black lab named Brooklyn, and she was the highlight of everyone’s day. Everyone here loves dogs and we were all swapping dog stories all week.
The remains of an old fortress.
After lunch, a bunch of us went to the beach. Bobby and I went swimming and then helped the others make more corrals.
Plastic fencing and zip ties to make a nest corral.
Then we went back to the beach to dig more nests to inventory them before the tide came in. Our group went north, to the boneyard, and its moniker was appropriate in more ways than one.
Another picture of the boneyard, but during the day. Still not easy to navigate.
We didn’t find a single live turtle in any of the five nests we dug, and most of them didn’t even have any hatched shells.
Bobby, with his long arms, was sometimes the only one who could reach to the bottom of the deep nests to dig eggs out.
The ratio of living to dead hatchlings is getting to be a little too depressing. I know that you can’t guarantee anything when nature and climate change are involved, but I was not expecting the majority of what I’d be dealing with would be dead eggs and dead hatchlings. Some, sure, but not this many. It really is heartbreaking to see precisely what the human race is doing to our planet in such a stark example.
The effects of climate change on paper. You can see how many times this nest was unexpectedly washed over, ensuring that all the turtle eggs in it drowned before they were hatched.
A dead hatchling we found in one of the nests. Probably the only one to hatch but since the rest of its brood was dead, it was trapped under all the eggs and couldn't dig its way out.
One of the thousands of nearly-grown turtles dead in their eggs. The effects of climate change in front of your eyes.
The other group found three live hatchlings in one of their nests, and even though two of them were weak/malformed/injured, the other group met up with us so we could all release them together. That part did make me feel a little better about this trip, but not much.
Two of the stragglers the other group found, being set free near the ocean.
Everyone went back to camp for free time before supper. I braved the mosquito shower, then read a little, and spent some time crying alone in my bunk about all the dead turtles and what a disaster this “vacation” was turning into, and what a stupid idea this trip was. Then I joined everyone else in the kitchen cabin and did some coloring, of, what else? A turtle, in my grown-up coloring book. I was then nominated to be the one to decorate the wooden tile for our week. Tacked onto the ceiling of the common area are wooden tiles that every group has been decorating for the last few years to reflect the happenings of their stay. In discussing what the theme or the picture should be, I joked that if I were to decorate it now, it would just be garbage, animal bones, mosquitoes, and dead turtles. I was actually pretty serious. Though I have seen other wildlife, including hummingbirds, alligators, small lizards, and today an armadillo, live turtles have been few and far between. Bobby loves armadillos and I think they’re cool too. We both got excited when we saw one, but Kris informed us that armadillos eat turtle eggs and they are a new addition to the island, so that bummed me out even more than I already was.
After a spaghetti supper with salad, summer squash, and cheesy bread, we went out on patrol to check nests. We got the north side again, which is the most unlucky side so far. Two of the three straggler retrievals have been on the south side, the south side has way fewer dead nests, and it is less dangerous to traverse in an atv. When we were done with our patrols and out of the boneyard, we saw that the other group was flashing their lights at us, so we passed the turn off to head back to the cabins and met up with them. Apparently they had witnessed a boil and saved some hatchlings in a bucket to release with us. I was immediately bummed we had missed the boil ourselves, but glad they had thought of us and put those turtles aside for us. We released them and then the other group had to finish their patrols. I wanted to go with them in case they saw another boil, but I couldn’t.
However, Kris told us that one of their nests looked ready to hatch and had one fresh turtle track when they checked it. We went there and actually two nests looked ready to hatch, though only one had tracks. We sat and watched both of them for at least 20 minutes. Our driver and teammate were both ready to head in when on one of the nests (the one with no tracks), moved and a little flipper came out.
The head of the first hatchling is starting to poke out of the nest.
This was enough to convince them to stay longer, and we waited about 15 minutes, watching for tiny little movements in the sand until the first hatchling fully emerged. At first it was a slow trickle, just one or two at a time, but then they all dug their way to the surface at once, and you can absolutely understand why a sea turtle hatching is called a boil. It was a swarm of cuteness, and it made the whole trip worth it.
View from the top of the nest boiling. I had to put my camera between the holes of the fence to get it, and most of these came out blurry because we can only use red light when turtles are hatching so as not to disorient them, but you get the idea.
If you click on any one of the pictures it should open up into a slideshow, which is probably the best way to view this next series of the next boiling and the baby turtles running to the ocean.
We returned the favor of the other group, and when they were done with their patrol we flagged them down to release some turtles together. In any other context, a swarm of things coming out of a nest and crawling around your feet would be horrifying, but when a swarm of sea turtles emerges and scurry their way to the ocean (and you do the turtle shuffle or just don’t move at all so you don’t step on any), it is truly a magical experience.
We got caught in a rain storm on our way back to base camp, but seeing the turtle “boil” was totally worth it. Physically, I am not great right now; I still have a sore throat, my wrist is really sore and my brace needs to be repaired with materials I don’t have, I’m tired, itchy, sticky, hot, and sandy, but, I no longer want to cry and leave the island early. Thank the turtle gods for tonight’s bounty. I had made up my own lyrics to Ariel’s main song and sang it on the way to our patrol tonight. This is my offering to the turtle gods. Thank you for answering my prayers.
I want to be where the turtles are I want to see, want to see ‘em hatching Scurrying along down the, what’s that word again? Beach!
Maybe I will write this song on our board. For now though, it is time to attempt slumber.
