Give a Cheer
It is important that they be dug up – there is no cover over the corral and if the baby turtles start to reach the surface of the sand by themselves the birds will feast on them and none will survive.
They are then put in crates of 300 turtles each and put in a dark holding place all day. When they can't see the sun the squirming baby turtles settle down and go to sleep. After sleeping all day, the turtles are energetic and ready to start their 100 year swim. That is approximately the life span of any of these babies fortunate enough to survive. Once they make their way to the ocean the males will never set foot on land again and the females will only come on land to lay eggs.
The crates are taken to the beach after dark and hotel guests from the Royal Caribbean, the Royal Islander and Royal Mayan are invited to help release them into the ocean.
This is also important because for the first 12 hours they swim very close to the surface so if they did make it to the ocean in the morning when they usually hatch, they would be devoured the in the first day when they are so visible to the birds near as they swim near the surface.
After 12 hours they start to swim further below the surface, plus, they are no longer close to the shore line where the birds watch for them.
Two posts are placed between the areas where they are to be released with a heavy cord strung a few inches off the ground between them so no one will step over and hurt any of the tiny turtles trying to get to the ocean from the beach.
Over 1,300 baby turtles hatched this morning and were ready to be released into the ocean tonight and there were at least 100 of us who volunteered to help. We formed a line; in the front of the line there were two volunteers who handed the person at the beginning of the line 2 wiggling, squirming baby turtles who were flapping their little front fins for dear life to get to the water while you are holding them. There were buckets full of them - more than 1,300 is a lot of tiny baby turtles!
Once you had two baby turtles, you carried them about 20-30 feet to the "roped off" area and set your turtles down on the sand on the other side of the cord. They immediately started going as fast as their little turtle legs would carry them toward the ocean although the tide came in every couple minutes right up to the cord and washed most of them part or all of the of the way to the ocean. It seemed like they would all drown when the big waves pounded over the baby turtles and washed them out to sea.
We then watched to make sure out two turtles actually made it into the sea. Some get disoriented by the hotel lights and turn the wrong way and walk away from the water towards the hotel. In that case you have to set them down on the other side of the cord again and watch to make sure they were safely in the ocean and out of sight. Then we all were instructed to quickly go to the end of the line again to get two more wiggling, squirming baby turtles. With two people handing out the baby turtles, the line kept moving and 1,300 turtles were in the released very quickly – two at a time!
Because the baby turtles are so confused by light, there was no flash photography allowed and all the pictures taken without flash photography just came out black with no image at all. I was disappointed not to have any baby turtle pictures but they said we could come back in the daytime for pictures.
No products have been added to this project.
Thanks for spreading positivity!
March 06, 2012
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February 29, 2012
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February 29, 2012
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February 29, 2012