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Channeling Jacques Cousteau
During the afternoon in Tortuguero, we learned that tickets for the sea turtle tours were doled out in a lottery.There would be two 2-hour tours ~ 8-10 pm and 10 pm to midnight, with the tours in each session broken down into five sectors of the beach.One of the five sectors is in the national park, which if drawn requires an extra $10 per person for the park entry fee, in addition to the $20 per person tour tickets.Naturally, being tired and cheap, we were hoping for the 8 pm tour in one of the 4 sectors on the public beach.The lottery is drawn each night by the park officials at 5:30 pm.
Up until five years ago, the turtle tours were limited to 200 people on the beach per session, with people wandering all up and down the beach in search of sea turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs.The park officials realized that this was not the best idea, since people ended up walking on the nests and scaring the approaching turtles.Now, people in each session are divided into five sectors, with several groups of approximately 10 people assigned to a guide.Local volunteers serve as spotters on the beach, who then radio to the tour guides with the location of the turtles who are nesting.
While playing cards on the dock at Casa Marbella at around 6 pm, our tour guide informed us of the good news/bad news.Our group had drawn the 8 pm session on the public beach; however, we would be in the furthest sector, which required a water taxi for an additional $5 per person.Feeling very fortunate not to have drawn the 10 pm tour in the national park, we looked forward excitedly to the opportunity for an extra boat ride.
Our water taxi picked us up on our dock at 7:30 pm for a 15-minute boat ride up the canal, where we got off the boat and walked in the already very dark night to a large flat paved area.We were told by our guide that we were standing on the landing strip of the Tortuguero airport, which ran parallel between the canal and the ocean.
As we waited in our holding area/landing strip, the clouds began to part and the moon started to shine brightly.After about five minutes, our guide got word that we needed to go to the beach quickly, as there was a green sea turtle who was already laying her eggs.As we walked, our guide informed us of the process.Green sea turtles live to be about 100 years old.At the age of 25-30 years, the females travel thousands of miles back to within 100 yards of the exact spot in which they were born to lay their eggs.
Green sea turtles come ashore and build their nest in the vegetation along the beach.The first stage of the process is called "cleaning" and takes about 20 minutes.Using her front flippers only, she clears the area by digging a fairly large flat hole in the sand and vegetation, flipping dirt and sand onto the beach.She uses her rear flippers to dig a smaller, deeper hole in which to lay her eggs.
In the next stage, she lays approximately 100 eggs, which look like perfectly round, perfectly white, ping-pong balls.During this 20-minute period, the turtle is entranced and cannot see, smell or hear anything around her.This is the point at which we arrived, with our guide bringing us up close to the turtle and shining a red light so that we could see her laying her eggs.We were within 1-2 feet of this 4-foot long sea turtle, watching her body convulse as she dropped several eggs at a time into this deep hole.Watching this in amazement, I was transported back to 5th grade science class, in which we were shown a Jacques Cousteau documentary on the sea turtles and their egg-laying process.I have always vividly remembered this movie and now here I was, watching this miracle transpire right in front of me!
After about 5 minutes of this, we were told that we needed to move back to make room for the next group to get close.While we waited on the side of the beach, we were able to make out in the light of the moon the silvery silhouettes of other large sea turtles in the surf, making their way to shore.We were also able to make out the tracks of dirt and sand made by other turtles further up the beach that had just completed the cleaning process.
Many of the turtles that we saw coming to shore turned back, apparently scared off by the human visitors on the beach.Our guide recounted to us stories of some turtles who tried repeatedly to come to shore to lay their eggs, only to be scared off and retreating back to the ocean.She said that she had seen some who were dropping eggs on the beach on their way back to the ocean, never having the chance to make a nest and the eggs definitely having no chance of survival.I felt so conflicted in that I was thrilled to be there on the beach witnessing this awe-inspiring event, and feeling that exposure to people of the process could only help the conservation efforts; however, I felt that we were grossly interfering with Mother Nature and the birthing process of these amazing animals who do not need any more odds stacked against them. {My guilt was eased later when the owner of Casa Marbella, one of the most experienced naturalists in Tortuguero, informed me that, about one-third of the time, the turtles will come up on shore and turn around back to sea, whether there are any people on the beach or not.}
Our guide then told us that the turtle had begun the last phase of the process, known as camouflaging, which takes about 45 minutes.Using her front flippers, she flings sand and dirt back over her nest, completely covering it in an effort to protect the eggs from predators.We were told that she could see us and hear us now, but that she would not leave until her nest was covered.Finally, at the completion of this phase, she dragged herself back to see, thoroughly exhausted.Two months from now, her babies will begin to hatch at night and will follow the light of the moon reflecting on the ocean to guide them to the sea.Very few of these 100 babies will actually survive ~ if they are not eaten by predators on their way to the sea, they will often be eaten by sharks and other ocean predators.
Our guide told us that we had gotten very lucky that night, as the sky was clear and the moon was shining brightly, which caused more sea turtles to come ashore as they had more visibility.She said that many people come on these tours and never get to see one sea turtle.We had seen about a dozen turtles coming to shore and witnessed up-close the egg-laying and camouflaging process of two separate turtles.I count myself so fortunate that my family and I were able to experience first-hand this Jacques Cousteau-esque phenomenon that very few people on the planet ever have a chance to see.Vive Jacques Cousteau!
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