Blog 3.4
Out~Rageous
Derek & Lynn Giles
Fri 28 Apr 2017 12:52
From April to July a sandy beach on the northern tip of Grenada becomes a nesting site.
Last night after a two hour drive we arrived at our destination at about 9pm and were joined by our guide who escorted us onto the beach to await the arrivals.
We had visited the beach two years ago and enjoyed our day but this was different. We could see further along the beach in the distance tiny red pin pricks of light from the local rangers as we headed in their direction.
We could hear her before we could see her, deep heavy sighs every minute or so. This was her breathing. I sat down in the sand next to her and instantly had sand thrown over me, for she was digging her nest!
I was sitting next to a leatherback turtle!
We were told that she weighs about 650 lbs, her back was four feet across and from nose to tail she was seven feet long.
She had been coming to this same beach from where she was hatched about twenty five years ago to lay her eggs. She will visit this beach over the next month or so about ten times and each time she will dig another nest and lay another clutch of between 50 and 150 eggs.
Sad fact is only about one egg in a thousand will reach maturity.
She was having a problem with this particular nest as she had climbed up the beach a little high and was encountering roots from nearby shrubs. This would had made it difficult for the hatchlings to dig their way out and the eggs would not have been deep enough to maintain the correct temperature for incubation. So all her eggs were caught in the hands of a ranger as she was laying them and placed in a bucket. He would take them and rebury them in a more suitable location.
All the nests sites are plotted and watched until the hatchlings emerge in about sixty days.
It was amazing to see these tennis ball size eggs popping out so quickly.
She then back filled the hole with her rear flippers and compressed the sand with her body.
After this the most important part was to camouflage the nest by making tracks in circles in the sand, digging false craters, the beach was a right mess when she had finished before finally moving her great body back toward the sea and breaking surf.
The beach is reopened to the public the next day at 6.00 am.
The turtles generally only arrive at night. People come and enjoy themselves, many completely unaware of the previous nights' events and what is happening two feet below the surface of the sand. I do believe the nest sites are monitored during the day for enthusiastic toddlers with big spades!
Amazing! How lucky were we?
I have posted some not very good pictures on dropbox of the turtle, we obviously were not using flash so the only light I had was from the guides red light.
So what a great end to this years Caribbean trip, Out-Rageous is now lifted out and the hard work begins to close her up before we fly home on the 9th May.
Thanks for reading our blog and we look forward to returning in?
well let me see roughly that would be November 8th at 4.15pm Caribbean time.
Regards
Derek