Jacques Cousteau Eat Your Heart Out!!

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Trust me, when you’re hoping to get your Snorkeling Badge, there are some things you want to hear from your new tour guide on the boat out to Turtle Island, and there are some things you don’t want to hear.

What you want to hear: The water is clear, the coral bright and colourful and there are lots of fish (tick, tick, tick - all present and correct)

What you don’t want to hear: But Valerie, make sure you watch out for the coral snakes (ti ... the WHAT?!)

Now Ron, about these coral snakes...

Don’t worry about it - if you don’t upset them, you’ll be fine ...

Apparently upsetting them is as simple as boxing them in a corner ... how I’d manage that in the sea, I’m not sure, but I was quite sure I’d manage it without even trying!!

So, whilst our new Australian friend Helen and I paddled, John valiantly went into the sea to check things out (he was wearing his trainers, which have since been left in the rubbish bin). The all-clear was given, and we all had a wonderful afternoon skimming over the coral.

After our evening meal and a video on the turtles, we all sat outside with everything crossed that we’d be lucky enough to see a turtle. The signs weren’t good - it’s the wrong season and they don’t like a lot of light, and we had clear skies and a full moon.

An hour of chat later, we suddenly hushed as a huge turtle could be seen humping herself up the beach. After about 10 minutes she started digging her nest, with sand flying high up into the air. Shortly afterwards, we were called to another turtle’s nest just up the beach, as she had just started laying her eggs. We all huddled round and watched in fascination as she safely delivered 101 eggs into the sand - which the warden deftly took out and placed into a bucket. The warden also measured her shell (97cm long x 94 cm wide) and tagged her as she was a new mother to the island - her approx age therefore being somewhere between 30 and 50 years old!

As soon as she started filling in the nest with her rear flippers, we were off with the warden and his bucket. A nest had been dug in the nursery and the eggs carefully placed in and then covered with sand. Netting around the nest and a marker giving vital statistics were placed over the top. The sex of the hatchlings will depend on the temperature of the sand over the 60 days’ gestation period - the higher the temperature, the more females.

The final part of the evening was watching the release of some hatchlings into the sea. It was so wonderful to see these tiny little creatures dashing down the sand to the sea (well, towards a light in the sea held by one of the wardens). Some went in the wrong direction and had to be helped along, but they were so cute I wanted to pop one in my bag! Hopefully they are now in a ‘swim frenzy’ for a few days in a current that will whisk them who knows where - apparently the next few years no-one really knows what happens to them. Occasionally a teenage adolescent will turn up in a net or in the shallows somewhere. All they know is that sometime in the next 30-50 years’ time they will hopefully be coming ashore to lay they own eggs. Now there’s a thought.

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Comments

[Chris]

Wow
Oh My God. That must've been amamzing! What a fantastic experience. xxxx

[Jacqui]

Jealous!
I can't believe you got to experience that! yourself and John are very, very lucky! I've watched this time and time again on Attenborough docu's and always hoped i'd get to see it for myself - fingers crossed I will next year! xxx