Leatherbacks

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Blogger Bec

New entrant for the "Top 3 Experiences of the Trip", perhaps even "Top 3 of my Life".

Today we had a midnight excursion to see the endangered Leatherback turtles on the beach at Matura beach in northern Trinidad.

We were in the incredibly priviledged position of seeing the entire ritual from start to finish.

The magnificent ritual that is the cycle of life for the leatherbacks begins with ferocious mating between all and sundry out in the depths of the ocean.

Every male and female of mating age (it takes between 20 and 30 YEARS before a leatherback reaches sexual maturity!!) engage in mating that ends in torn flippers and hours of "riding". The female stores all the sperm in a sack and then (by some miracle of nature) at intervals over the next 6 months, sperm is released and eggs fertilised.

She then zips into shore and seeks out a nesting site. This is a very cumbersome chore due to her huge bulk and inability to smoothly navigate the dune-y beaches. She then is a little dog like by circling around an area until settling down, front first and digs out the sand behind her.

Next, the female leatherback enters her trance and starts depositing her eggs. She lays about 80 - 100 eggs, about 1/3 to a 1/2 of them being placebo eggs. The purpose of these is when the other eggs grow, they take the nutrients out of the placebo eggs (don't ask me how!!).

Once done laying, the huge mama uses her flippers (about 2m across) to fill in the nest. She then does a big camouflage job that takes almost as long as the laying itself. The nest is about 30cm square but the time she has finished covering up the nest, the laying site is about 3m square. It was impossible for us to pick the actual nest site even though we had watched the whole process!!

Then begins the slow journey back into the water where the female will feed and rest for a couple more weeks. After that, the whole process starts again.

A female will nest between 8 and 10 times a season.

The babies gestate in the egg for about 8-10 weeks and then begin the desperate dash for the ocean. Only 1 in 100 babies grow to maturity.

Getting to Matura beach began with a 2 hour drive from Port of Spain with Ivan, an eco-tour guide with a passion for wildlife, limin' and hashing (not the pot smoking kind of hash - hashing is a bit like a cross between orienteering and bush running).

We passed through many small villages alive and pumping with locals enjoying the Easter holiday. As the beaches are all out of Port of Spain, everyone flocks there for the weekends and then heads back at night, stopping at bars every 30 minutes or so to lime. (Drink driving is endemic and quite frightening as an Aussie indoctrinated in the ways of designated driving!!)

We arrived just out of the beach in a little village whose inhabitants take on the responsibilty of patrolling the beach between March and September (largely on a volunteer basis) from sunset to sunrise every night. Our small group of locals and tourists converged on a house owned by a friend of Ivan's, to have a lovely home cooked meal of all local foods, including fish caught by the husband of the house.

At about 9:30pm we drove the last 2km or so out to the beach (with headlights mostly off, bit nervewracking as it was pitch black and the roads haven't been updated since they were made in the 40's).

We trooped quietly to the beach, almost tripping over the first nesting turtle in the process!!

She was right in the middle of laying her eggs. There was a small crowd around her so we had a quick look and then moved on with our lovely local guide Susanne. She had scouted around via her radio and found out that there were 3 more ole girls much further down the beach so we headed down there.

It was so breathtaking to see the open skies and have NO noise, NO music, NO shouting, NO cars, NO street lights. The stars! Stunning. We saw (or thought we saw) the southern cross which confused us greatly - isn't that only seen in the southern hemisphere?

Along the walk to the trio of lady leatherbacks, we were stopped by a group of UWI marine biology students who were in the process of tagging one of the big girls. She was also laying at the time we arrived. When the female lays, she goes into a trance and that is when you are allowed to touch her and take photos or use a torch to observe her huge body.

Once she stops laying, or when she is searching for a suitable nesting spot, only a red light is allowed to be used, but preferably, no light at all. This is because she gets confused and thinks the light is the ocean and then doesn't return to the ocean, leaving her vulnerable.

The heads are really hard, protecting the brain, but everything else, including the shell, are all soft. I could barely breathe I was so excited about being able to touch her. Everyone showed great respect and were very calm and quiet. Mother Nature is unspeakably powerful. There are just not enough superlatives to describe what She has created.

A few more nests and a few more amazing sights, the spectacle ended at about 1pm (well for us anyway, the turtles keep nesting all night).

It was an incredible night and we feel so lucky to have witnessed it.

Til next time
😊

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Photos

A Prehistoric Face
We didnt need a zoom lens for this shot. The guides allowed us to sit right next to these amazing animals whilst they lay their eggs.