On Sunday, Karen, one of the Research Assistants here, came into our room at 10pm saying they had a Leatherback. Three of us ran down the beach to see her... She was still in the process of digging her body pit by the time we arrived, so we got to see her dig the nest, lay the eggs (into a bag held by someone), fill the nest and start camouflaging it. She was still camouflaging by the time I went back to the station and walked by again on my midnight patrol shift (they're pretty thorough). She was a new leatherback and a small one (probably young).. only 1.4m carapace length... still big for a turtle though, yeah?
Was at the end of my first stretch with Greivin, guy that works here, when an old man we had run into on the way down signalled us with his light. We went over to investigate and sure enough... Baula.. working her way up the beach. Got to watch her for a while and she was just starting to dig the nest by the time Karen and Claire showed up.. Reinforcements with an eggbag.
Greivin cleared away some of the sand behind her while she was digging and then let me lay down behind her to hold the bag under her to collect the eggs. Epic.
Karen ever so kindly put things in perspective for me... "Nothing like having your face right up a turtle's ass"... Yeah I was all up in there but collecting eggs from a critically endangered species thats been roaming the seas virtually unchanged for 65 million years was pretty special regardless.
Eileen was her name.. She was here about 10 days ago laying another nest. (Leatherbacks usually come to nest about 5-7 times every 10 days during nesting season). She was bigger than the other one.. over 1.5m carapace length
We brought the eggs to the hatchery and built her a nest.. 69 normal eggs and 82 yolkless..
Rested for a bit and then got another call... I was thinking.. 3 leatherbacks in one night?! you have to be shitting me. Would have been sweet but it turns out it was just Eileen coming back onto the beach and farting around... pretty strange behavior so we hung out for a while keeping an eye on her until she went back to the water. Freaking cool.
We've been expecting another Leatherback, Esperanza, but we're a little uncertain if she'll return. She was pretty badly injured when she was here 10 days ago... really deep cuts around her neck and fins from getting stuck in a fishing line... so we're keeping our fingers crossed but who knows.
Apologies for the bland entry but I didn't have my camera on me and even so leatherbacks are really sensitive to light so a flash would have been out of the question.. look one up if you want... they're huge
Totally Awesome!!!! I love that you had your head up a turtle's ass. Would have been hard to take pics from that position anyway and Eileen deserves a little privacy. That said, sure hope you do get some respectful shots while there.
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