Ocean Spirits
Wednesday afternoon twelve explorers loaded into Shademan's bus for a trip to the northeastern corner of Grenada. The group included 4 cruising couples and one cruising family with teenaged daughters. The bus fleet on the island consists of Toyota vans that are typically loaded to the brim. They honk at every person walking down the road to see if you want to jump aboard. We snaked our way through tropical forests, along beaches, and through villages for the long version of 2 hours - no A/C, salsa music pumping, knees under your chin, quickly becoming the closest of friends with your neighbors. Shademan shares a little about the parishes we are driving through, but more importantly, he honks at all his friends along the roadways. He is making good money driving us tonight, but I imagine he'd just as well be drinking a rum and playing dominoes at one of the roadside dives.
As night falls, we approach Levera Beach, one of three primary nesting areas for Leatherback turtles. Leatherbacks are the 3rd largest reptiles on the planet. Males can reach 9 feet in length and weigh up to 900 pounds. There are a couple of crocodilians that can be larger. I prefer not to encounter an enormous croc, but when these female turtles come to the beach to lay their eggs, you can watch, and even touch, these giants.
A team of researchers from oceanspirits.org stand vigil day and night on the beach. They tag the turtles, count eggs, relocate nests if needed, and collect data on the females. We sat on the beach for a couple hours until the researchers told our guide he could bring us out to observe a female nesting. We watched her slowly build a nest, lay her eggs, and then cover and camouflage the nest before heading back to sea. These animals are large, to say the least, and she worked so hard at her task. In the water, they move almost effortlessly and can swim at speeds up to 20 miles an hour, although they usually saunter along at 2 miles an hour. On the beach, they might move 20 feet in an hour. They dive up to 3000 feet below the surface in search of their favorite prey, the jellyfish. Leatherbacks live in all the seas and can travel 10,000 miles in a year. They start reproducing at 15 to 20 years of age and can live to 100, reproducing until the end.
When we arrived, she was still working on her perfect hole in the sand. Red colored flashlights can be used around the animals, but no white light or flashes are allowed. We watched as the researches actually caught the eggs she was laying and gently laid them in the nest, making sure no eggs were damaged as they fell into the nest below the turtle. As the turtle is laying her eggs, she goes into a trance and we could touch her back and shoulder without bothering her. The whole process took about 2 hours. As she was returning to the sea, another turtle crawled out of the ocean 20 feet away. And on our hike along the moonlit beach, back to the research staging area, we watched a third turtle return to the sea.
Lucky for Leatherbacks, their meat is oily and unappealing to humans. One in a thousand will make it to its reproductive age, and once an adult their only natural predators are killer whales and large sharks. Evidently, they are rarely devoured. Humans still represent the biggest threat. Poachers dig up their eggs, and our shopping habits have created an even more dangerous threat. Look closely at the picture of a jellyfish below, can you see the problem?
Our grocery bags decay in the ocean and quickly become jelly look-alikes. The turtles mistake bags for food and try to eat them. The bags get caught in their digestive system, and that's that. All the islands we visited are trying to eliminate the bags through legislation. Ten years ago, Kel and I thought recycling was the answer, but that hasn't worked. The volume of bags has overwhelmed the recycling demand. Now plastic bags are stuck in our trees, fences, rivers, and oceans. Find ways to forego the bags; it is an easy way to make a big difference. Please do everything you can to give the fantastic creatures we share this planet with a fighting chance.
As night falls, we approach Levera Beach, one of three primary nesting areas for Leatherback turtles. Leatherbacks are the 3rd largest reptiles on the planet. Males can reach 9 feet in length and weigh up to 900 pounds. There are a couple of crocodilians that can be larger. I prefer not to encounter an enormous croc, but when these female turtles come to the beach to lay their eggs, you can watch, and even touch, these giants.
A team of researchers from oceanspirits.org stand vigil day and night on the beach. They tag the turtles, count eggs, relocate nests if needed, and collect data on the females. We sat on the beach for a couple hours until the researchers told our guide he could bring us out to observe a female nesting. We watched her slowly build a nest, lay her eggs, and then cover and camouflage the nest before heading back to sea. These animals are large, to say the least, and she worked so hard at her task. In the water, they move almost effortlessly and can swim at speeds up to 20 miles an hour, although they usually saunter along at 2 miles an hour. On the beach, they might move 20 feet in an hour. They dive up to 3000 feet below the surface in search of their favorite prey, the jellyfish. Leatherbacks live in all the seas and can travel 10,000 miles in a year. They start reproducing at 15 to 20 years of age and can live to 100, reproducing until the end.
When we arrived, she was still working on her perfect hole in the sand. Red colored flashlights can be used around the animals, but no white light or flashes are allowed. We watched as the researches actually caught the eggs she was laying and gently laid them in the nest, making sure no eggs were damaged as they fell into the nest below the turtle. As the turtle is laying her eggs, she goes into a trance and we could touch her back and shoulder without bothering her. The whole process took about 2 hours. As she was returning to the sea, another turtle crawled out of the ocean 20 feet away. And on our hike along the moonlit beach, back to the research staging area, we watched a third turtle return to the sea.
Lucky for Leatherbacks, their meat is oily and unappealing to humans. One in a thousand will make it to its reproductive age, and once an adult their only natural predators are killer whales and large sharks. Evidently, they are rarely devoured. Humans still represent the biggest threat. Poachers dig up their eggs, and our shopping habits have created an even more dangerous threat. Look closely at the picture of a jellyfish below, can you see the problem?
 |
| Jellyfish? |
Our grocery bags decay in the ocean and quickly become jelly look-alikes. The turtles mistake bags for food and try to eat them. The bags get caught in their digestive system, and that's that. All the islands we visited are trying to eliminate the bags through legislation. Ten years ago, Kel and I thought recycling was the answer, but that hasn't worked. The volume of bags has overwhelmed the recycling demand. Now plastic bags are stuck in our trees, fences, rivers, and oceans. Find ways to forego the bags; it is an easy way to make a big difference. Please do everything you can to give the fantastic creatures we share this planet with a fighting chance.
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ReplyDeleteHi, Ralf! I'm so glad to see you are enjoying the pirate life. Stay safe, and we'll all continue to live vicariously through you.
ReplyDelete