The Quest To Save Some Turtles - Part II: The Rescue

After all the excitement, we all got back to the guesthouse in time to check in and catch the truck that was taking us to the beach.  This picture is looking down the coast of Matura Beach.  Where we ended up finding some hatchling turtles was behind me.

We all go to the beach and started walking along it, not really knowing what we were looking for.  The guides split up to use their "professional" eye to find some hatchlings.  The guide who was wandering with us, got a call on his walkie-talkie and said that the other guides found some lost hatchlings and they needed our help, stat!  Ok maybe he didn't say all of that, but he did find some and we were off to do our duty.  We hiked back down the beach and found this disgusting pool of water that was an outlet for water from the mountains near by.  But apparently there wasn't enough water in it to make it up and over some of the beach hills to get out to the ocean.

In this disgusting pond, we saw little turtle heads popping up and down.  The guides were trying to get the turtles with this long, fallen tree branch, but were not having much luck.  The little girls looked a little despaired by the situation, so Nick (now dubbed the "Hero Dad") climbed into the pond to start gathering up the little turtles and handing them to his daughters saying "girls, can you take this one for me so we can make sure he gets back to the ocean?"  "Yes papa," the girls would respond with joy and excitement.  This went on for a couple passes and fortunately for the Hero Dad, no appendages fell off as a result of wading through this pond and to date, no additional unwanted growths have been reported.

We gathered up the hatchling turtles in a small bucket and the guides began to tell us about the whole process of the mothers laying the eggs, predators of the hatchlings, where their food is stored, etc.  These things were so cute and they were just barely bigger than the size of your palm.

After our lesson on leatherback turtles, we took them to the beach by the ocean and set them on their way.  Apparently they need to feel and smell the sand, so they know where to come back in 20-30 years to lay their own eggs.  We had 22 in all.  I guess during the actual hatching season, you can find a couple hundred on a tour like ours.  But there go our 22 little friends.

I think we were told something like 1 in 500 of these hatchling turtles actually make it to adulthood (which is a staggering 1-1.5 meters in diameter), so chances are, our rescue will still end in death for all of them.  At least it was a cool experience.  And who knows, maybe one of these 22 little hatchlings will beat the odds and grow up to be president one day.