Hatchlings, Big Mamma, and no sleep oh my

It was the first optional night for tagging and half the group stayed behind to catch up on some Z’s. We joked on the way to the beach of the lie we would tell them of how wonderful it was. We agreed our story would involve the largest turtle yet and of course, some hatchlings. And sure enough, no lies to be told, we saw hatchlings! They were three-inch bundles of joy, scurrying into the night. After sleep walking up and down the beach for hours, they were truly a sight for tired eyes. The finding group brought a few hatchlings to our meeting ground so the other groups could see them as well. They reported seeing 25 hatchlings and Scott surmised that it was a second emergence from a nest that had already hatched. At the end of the night, we released seven of them and cheered as they raced to the ocean. That is, all but Kristen’s hatchling whom decided to get a little moon tan before taking a dip.

The adventure continued with Mr. Paul on the Caribbean polka playing “Chief Crazy Horse” party bus. The light house was our first stop. Of course we had to take advantage of this great opportunity to take a photo-op. Eight different cameras were enlisted for this activity. This photo shoot was accompanied by SOCA tunes streaming from some dude’s van. Toco was our second destination for a chat with a local fisherman. The port was small and had about a dozen boats that weren’t much bigger than john boats. The fisherman explained the expense of the nets and the costs of how turtles can damage their nets. He also explained the difficulties of obtaining bait and the pressures from outside countries to fish. The turtles are just as big of an issue for the fisherman as the fisherman are on the turtles. Before the end of the talk the fisherman that we talked to agreed to help Scott with a future experiment testing a net with smaller holes. This new net will be more stiff in the water and will not billow, which is what catches the turtles. Scott and the Natureseekers will provide him with a new net that will catch more mackerel and less turtles! On a lighter note, the vultures hovering around the port were thrilled to attack the dead baby sharks floating everywhere in the water.

Our next stop was Grande Riviere, which has a relatively small beach for many tourists and as many as 250 nesting turtles per night. One of the nature tour guides took us on a hike and for a swim where we swung from vines and balanced on fallen underwater trees. We sampled some fruits on our hike and the most memorable was the cashew fruit. One bite turned your mouth to fuzz! The other fruit we tried was coco which our guide taught us to “suck and not bite the fruit.”

It was quite a refreshing tasty treat. After our hike we had a fancy box lunch filled with more yummy unidentified foods.

Our guide, Nicholas, sat down and talked to us about the beach and their management efforts. Our talk was interrupted for a presentation of awards on defensive driving and CPR training where our beautiful faces were used for a photo-op. Upon his return, Nicholas informed us of the slow rebuilding of the Grande Riviere conservation group. Several years ago they suffered a painful split due to disagreements on management. Thankfully these disagreements have been resolved and the turtle conservation group is once again working in partnership with the tourist organization.

In the midst of one of Nicholas’s sentences, “TURTLE!!!” erupted from the mouth of one of his co-workers. This resulted in us abandoning the presentation to rush down to the beach. Since the turtle was ready to leave the beach, Scott had to do a little PIT tag ring-around-the-rosey dance in order to get her number. Once she had returned to the sea, we proceeded down the beach to the various craft stands. David, who carved bamboo, gained a lot of our business. He was nice enough to make custom-made leatherback bamboo-carved pencil holders/vase/candle holder/whatever you want to use it for. After that, we attacked the giant waves. Jason and Emma were enjoying the body surfing, while the rest of us just enjoyed getting knocked over. After a long day, we excitedly jumped onto the bus for another night at the beach. Just another day in Turtle Paradise.

~Rebecca, Kristen, and Michele