(nat here)
Yesterday, we stayed up more or less all night to volunteer for Ocean Spirits. They're an organisation that works to protect turtles - but Leatherbacks especially.
So we (Mum) decided that we would help.
Honestly, I thought it would be super boring - like walking up and down the beach for 1 and a half hours, and then sleeping for the same amount of time and repeat. But thankfully, nope. It was really interesting, and we got super close to the turtle.
All of the turtles are named in alphabetical order (we had a lot of spare time, okay?)
Tip if any of you want to do it: bring a caravan, not a five-seater green car to sleep in.
SHIFT ONE-
We met a friend who works at the GSPCA there, which was a surprise - he was there for the tour.
Walked for abt 30mins along the beach. Found Turtle 1 - we named her Abby.
Abby’s shell skin area was 161 cm long. I’m not sure about the width of the skin-shell, but it’s something in the 110-120 area.
The tour group arrived = gawking over Abby (except our friend and his girlfriend - they had done this before).
We found Abby digging her hole (wow it’s so weird to watch). She scoops sand with her back flippers and flings it to the side. She does that until she can't scoop out anymore - I think our supervisor said it was 60cm deep.
I counted the eggs - 90 fertilized and 47 not. 137 TOTAL. Colette was comforting her, patting her shell, etc.
We can put on our resumes, once we get back to NZ: midwife.
It took Abby a long time to fill up the hole later. We left her and the tour and went to find another leatherback.
The next turtle was about 75 metres away from Abby. We called her Brenda.
We found Brenda laying, so we couldn’t count the eggs. Colette and I measured her shell, though - and I forgot the measurement of length, heh.
*thinks about it very hard*
I think the length was... one hundred and fifty-something cm. The width was 118cm - that one I remember really well because Colette and I kept messing it up, so we had to have help.
We checked evcerything on Brenda (injuries, parasites, tags, markers on land) and then went back to Abby, who was camouflaging the nest by throwing sand around. Leatherbacks do this to make it seem that the turtle has never been there, and the predators don't know where the nest is. Quite smart, really.
We wanted to see Abby go back in the water, so we sat down and chilled, stargazed for a bit - really clear night.
We attacked our supervisor with turtle questions.
The tour went to check out Brenda.
The tour came back to Abby.
Abby started crawling towards the water. She was almost there, but a tourist was on their phone, so the light distracted Abby. She decided to come back up the beach, and Praggi (our supervisor) said this was normal - they do some sort of a flyby before heading in, often. Colette joked that she forgot her phone or sunglasses (which of course made us say "WhErE's my PHoNe?!" from Jumanji).
Tour left, back to cars.
We left, back to the cars.
That was about two hours.
In the car @ 10:37 pm.
Things I realised from Abby/Brenda: Leatherback turtle eyes are creepy. They're also absolutely massive (they're the same total length as Colette is tall)- and the females are the small ones! And they take their time - the whole camouflaging thing can take up to two hours!
SHIFT TWO -
We had three hours off. We all got a lot more sleep than we thought (Colette especially) - it was almost 1 am and none of us felt like it was.
Apparently, the other two staff doing the watch found another turtle (which was why we got three hours rest) - Caroline.
Very uneventful for a bit. We walked to the end of the beach and sat down. Oh, Praggi’s dog is Prince. From the bar, earlier (we got lost trying to find the beach and stopped at a bar and had some chips while we waited for the OS staff to show up so we could follow them - Prince was there). Prince is totally chill around turtles, it is a bit weird.
Then Dad spotted Doris. The last fully grown lady of the night.
She was coming out of the water. We couldn’t get closer immediately, because she might decide to not lay there. But she climbed up the beach, and started digging, so we approached her.
Dorris was b*tchy.
I got slapped by her back fins (I don't think she meant to hit me, I just got in the way of her digging) while trying to read her registration tags.
She ditched the hole, after almost laying in it. Apparently, it wasn't good enough. Then she made weird noises, like a whale, but much less nice sounding.
We sat back and let her find another spot. This time, she committed. Mum was sitting kinda close and kept inching back because Doris kept flinging sand around and it was hitting Mum.
I counted the eggs. Not as much as Abby. 118 total. 41 yolkless. It was kind of hard to count, with Prince wanting cuddles at the same time.
Doris was the smallest of Abby, Brenda and Dorris. I don't know about Caroline.
Doris has taken a beating. Propellers, my guess. Her neck has got this giant gash, and so does her shell/shoulder. That’s why I was slow-ish at finding the microchip in her damaged shoulder, I didn’t want to hurt her. She has parasites and barnacles, too. Doris is a survivor.
Once she started camouflaging the nest, we went back to the car.
Can I just say, it is SO hard to walk along a beach in trainers and lugging equipment (toolbox/bag/bucket) - or maybe that was just because it was 2:30 am.
In the car @ 2:59 pm.
Not as much sleep as the first rest.
SHIFT THREE -
It was 5 am by the time they woke us up. Last shift. The sun had risen, so there was light. Colette waved us off, because she wanted to ‘sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeep’. So we let her sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. She missed out, though.
We measured the nests from yesterday - Abby, Brenda, Caroline, Doris - first. How far from the waterline/markers/etc.
And then…!
There had been a hatching overnight. Everyone working tonight missed it. Sharka (another supervisor) spotted the nest by the teeny tracks in the sand, leading to the sea. So Sharka started digging, and in his handfuls of sand, there were some hatchlings!
In total, there were 7 that we got out from under the sand. One was already dead, so there were 6 living hatchlings.
They were all a bit deformed - probably from being stuck at the bottom of the nest. One wasn’t using a front flipper at all. One had a pinched shell, one turned in circles, and one kept getting stuck in seaweed - and one was super slow - shell shocked (: - and we thought he was gonna die (luckily not, though).
There was one that was in turbo mode. It was super quick for a small turtle.
By the way, when I say small, I mean flippers-fully-extended-and-still-fitting-in-your-palm small.
They were
They all made it to the water (except the dead one, duh). The one that wasn’t using its flipper - probably gonna die.
The odds for a leatherback turtle hatchling to survive are not in their favor - one hundred to one. And they aren’t the strong ones of the nest.
They were not named then - I did not have my trusty name sidekick.
So I'm gonna name them now!
Oh, Colette's back. Name sidekick back, so we can name them together!
Shell-shocked - Edgar
Turbo mode - Fiona
Wonky Flipper - Groot
Pinched shell - Howard
Circle Turtle- Isabell
Seaweed Lover - Jeremiah
Dead one (we feel obliged to mention him - rest in peace, lil turtle) - Kyle (sorry, kefunkle, it was the only name we could think of apart from ken, and we can't do KEN!)
We measured one more nest (Abby's), and went back to the car. Back to car - 6:30 am.
Told Colette about the hatchlings, she was devastated yo have missed out.
Drove back to boat. Back @ dinghy dock at 8 am.
Napped, back on boat.
Happy life.
A side note:
I'm now genderfluid.
my pronouns are generally he/him (but occasionally they/them).
Bye from Nat
PICTURES!
Looks like so much fun. What a story to tell!!
Nice job Nat, and mum!