Turtle Trip, Day 4 (Tuesday): Finally, some turtles!

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.

Turtle Trip, Day 3 (Monday): The sad effects of climate change, plus eyes at night.

We left for our morning beach patrol at 6:00am.  We checked the same nests as last night for signs of hatching, but we didn’t have any luck finding turtles this time around.  We only got to one of the three nests we were supposed to dig this morning before the bugs got so bad that we gave up.  I did at least get some cool pictures of animal tracks and awesome pictures of The Boneyard.

The nest was another depressing one.  It had been flooded by an unseasonably high tide, like a lot of the nests we’ve dug so far, unfortunately, so all the eggs drowned when they were maybe a week away from hatching.

It's really depressing digging up dozens of dead eggs like this.  Some nests have twice this amount, over a hundred.

It is really sad to see this.  I know that in nature, the majority of turtles don’t make it to adulthood, but most of them should have at least hatched.  Climate change is messing with the beaches these turtles lay their eggs on, making it harder to find a safe place to nest.  There’s not much we can do about the tides, but at least the nests here have a modicum of protection against predators.  The foxes, crabs, raccoons, and birds would just eat all of them if left alone.  Due to poaching, fishing bycatch, and habitat loss, there aren’t enough eggs being laid to let the predators have their fill and still have some leftover, nevermind enough to support the next generation.

Pink spoonbills.

After our morning patrol, we had breakfast, and some of us then took naps, including me. Then there was a small contingent going to the beach to swim before lunch, so I joined them. We wound up digging up three dead and depressing nests instead, including one where we had to collect samples of the dead babies to be sent back to a researcher for analysis. It’s weird to be watching someone cut a flipper off a dead sea turtle and stick embryos into vials, but it’s good to know that the data being collected will be used to help further protect the species.

Digger, counter, and recorder.

Dead turtle sample plus flipper and goo in vials for a DNA study.

Kris was headed back to the beach after lunch to look for nests we couldn’t find in the dark the last two days, using their GPS coordinates instead of just markers and paces.  Me, Bobby, and JoBeth hitched a ride to the beach, and Bobby and I went swimming and JoBeth went off looking for shells and to practice yoga while Kris and Darnice looked for the lost nests.  Neither nest was found, even with the GPS. One of them was way up into the woods, so it’s possible that someone copied the coordinates wrong.  The other one was close enough to the water that it was likely washed away, marker, protection, and all.  Swimming, at least, was fun.  The water was warm and wonderful and the waves were pretty strong.  Eventually the current got too strong for it to be safe, though, and we came out, pretty much just in time to hitch a ride back to camp.

You can see a plover kind of shore bird and a shrimp trawler in the background. 

Back at camp, I decided it was time to brave the shower. The shower here is an outdoor wooden stall with only cold running water and seems to be the place where mosquitoes most love to congregate. There was a solar shower bag that someone had brought if you wanted hot water, but after the sun on the beach, the cold water felt pretty nice. I just rinsed the sand off and washed my hair because I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. I kept my bathing suit and sandals on too, just as an extra protection against the bugs. After changing into dry clothes and dousing myself in bug spray, I hung my wet stuff on the line outside to dry. I think I am tired enough to try to nap again before supper and night patrols.

Supper was really good tonight. Chicken with sweet potatoes and yeast rolls and salad with walnuts and apples. We’ve been kind of eating like crap lately at home, so maybe when we get back home all this good eating will have inspired us to cook and meal prep and all that healthy jazz.

Alligator in the swamp.  They also sometimes wander the beaches

Our patrol tonight was back on the south end of the beach this time. Bobby spotted a nearly flat tire on the mule before we left, and it’s a good thing too. We went down the whole south side of the beach and back again. We were out for almost three hours, and getting a flat would have sucked. There’s no real-time communication between teams once they are out on patrol, so I don’t know whence assistance would have come had we gotten stuck. Anyway, tonight’s patrol was rather difficult. We not only checked all the nests for signs of hatching (and came up empty), but we dug out a few nests and counted a lot of almost-baby turtles dead in their eggs. There is one nest that we thought was going to be completely dead but actually did hatch about half of it, so that’s good. I much prefer counting egg shells to breaking open unhatched eggs to reveal the state of development at nest death. Nobody found any live hatchlings tonight.

Some hatched eggs and a data collector that measured temperature and humidity levels throughout the nesting period, which we'll send back to the researcher studying the impact these have on success rates and sex ratios of the hatchlings.

The mosquitoes were also as bad as I have ever seen them on the beach tonight. I learned that they can’t bite through latex gloves, but boy, will they try. We also learned to look for eyes at night. Red reflections are reptilian (or human), blue are mammal, and gold/green are spiders. If you ever want to freak yourself out, go outside at night and shine a flashlight on the ground. All the cool little sparkles are spider eyes. They are everywhere here. Clearly there aren’t enough of them, though, with the mosquitoes being as bad as they are. I have only seen one bat here so far, and this island can certainly support more. There is no shortage of food for spiders, bats, and dragonflies. I’ve only seen a few alligators in the swamps around here during the day, but at night, you can see probably a dozen red eyes on the water’s surface. I’ve seen deer around here, which I presume are the main food source for the gators. We have been told there are also wild boars here, and that they get big and tend to be pretty mean, but I haven’t seen one yet.

So far, I have only tried to take pictures of pretty or fun things that happen here, but I think I may start taking pictures of some of the sad things that I find, so that I can share the reality of climate change. I know it’s a little macabre, but I think I want to document the whole experience here, good and bad. On the list of bad things, a new development is that I think I may be coming down with something. I’ve started a little with the coughing and the sneezing. Not a lot, and it could just be allergies, but still. I don’t have any cough/cold medicine with me. I am going to try to get some more rest and maybe beat whatever this thing is.

Ghost crab tracks.  After they've been washed over or at night, it's hard to tell the difference between these and turtle tracks leaving the nest (below).

Turtle tracks.

Tracks leading away from the nest.