Baulitas!

Spent the day in San Juanillo yesterday... nice local beach that is about an 80cent bus ride from the station. Great place to go and relax, swim, have some beers. Twas a good day. Came back here to the news that there were 15 leatherback hatchlings that emerged from one of the nests in the hatchery. They came out around the middle of the day and the beach and sand were too hot for them to travel to the water safely, so they were being kept in a bin at the center until conditions were more ideal.

We waited til around 6 and then a bunch of us went down to the beach to clear a nice track for them: flattening the sand, filling in crabholes, picking up debris and such. And then the race began. The little babies were a bit tired and disoriented from being in a bucket for the better part of the day so they started off a bit confused looking, moving around in circles and not in the right direction.


But they soon got the idea and headed toward the water.. Maybe it was the audience that had them confused at first.... There were quite a few of us watching and trying to send them in the right direction.


It was hard to get any decent pictures because they sun had set and they move really fast. Amazing to see there huge front flippers propelling them down the beach- they really are incredibly strong... Adult front flippers can break a legs if you get in their way.


Eventually they all made it to the sea. Like I've said before there's something really gratifying about seeing the hatchlings start swimming. They're on their own now and its disconserting to think about their odds but at least we may have made one small difference this critically endangered species whose numbers and chances of survival are dwindling each year.
Three more hatchlings arrived Saturday night while I was on patrol and hopefully there'll be a lot more because the nests they've been emerging from had quite a lot of eggs in them.