Turtle Sanctuary, Tahaa

Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Fri 28 May 2010 19:13
16:38.701S  151.27.431W
 
 
Right then, there was Blue Magic, Miss Tippy and us three all eager to see this turtle sanctuary. There had been rumours that previous ralliers had taken baby turtles and released them back into the ocean so we were looking forward to getting there. But things didn't go very smoothly right from the start, no one could quite understand what we were asking and it was all a little confusing until eventually a man named Dave said he'd show us the turtles. Now, when we arrived, Amy joked that small nets/cages in the water outside the hotel were housing the turtles and we just laughed. But when Dave jumped into the water inside the nets we realised that there were actually 3 turtles swimming around inside, we couldn't believe it. He caught one and lay him on the wooden pontoon and explained in broken English that he was 6 years old. I say 'him' and 'he' but they can't actually sex turtles until they are 10 years old so we don't know whether he was male or female but it was beautiful, the shell looked as if it was painted! Dave said the owner would be back within the hour and he'd tell us more about it all and take us to the actual sanctuary which was an hour away. We didn't quite manage to establish whether there were more turtles an hour away but it was all soon forgotten about when Leo, the owner, arrived.
 
  
 
Jackamy on a mooring buoy outside the Hibiscus Hotel
 
  
 
Dave showed us one turtle
 
 
And then caught another one which was slighty younger and had a different colouration
 
  
 
  
 
He also showed us a stone fish. If you don't get to hospital within one hour of being poisoned you will die! This is why you should always wear reef shoes when walking in the water in these areas!
 
Leo and his wife Lolita started the Hibiscus Foundation, a non-profit association created in 1992 at Tahaa. The foundation is authorised to hold sea turtles by decree from the Government of the Territory of French Polynesia. They aim to save French Polynesia's sea turtles, which include the Green Turtle and the Fine Shell or Overlapped Turtle. These two species of turtles are regularly caught by the fish traps set by fishermen in the channels or near the coral reef barriers. They are still widely hunted nowadays for eating and are increasingly becoming an endangered species. Most of the turtles caught in the traps are between 3-7 years old and if Leo didn't buy them from the fishermen, the fishermen would either eat them themselves or sell them for eating purposes. Sadly the turtles aren't just accidentally caught in fishermens nets they are also relentlessly hunted.
 
Once the turtles are bought they measure and weigh them and tag them. They are tagged for a research program being conducted by the University of Hawaii enabling them to learn more about the turtles migrating habits. The numbers and measurements are entered into a database allowing them to find out where a turtle comes from in case of recapture. During 1997, Leo and his helpers released some 600 turtles back into the wild. And 8 years after starting the foundation they had released 1308 sea turtles back into the ocean.
 
In the Society Islands, most of the turtles going through the lagoons come from laying spots in this area, namely the atolls of Scilly and Bellinghausen. For the turtles it is the beginning of a long migration that will last years and will take them towards the islands of Fiji, Tonga and Australia. They cannot lay eggs before 20-25 years of age when they will measure between 1.2 and 1.5 metres and weigh around 130-150 kilos. When they reach 20-25 years old and they are ready to reproduce they will come back to the laying spots where they were born.
 
The work of the foundation is solely aided by the money donated by visitors and his Leo's own love for the turtles.
 
 
It was all very surreal, one minute we were talking to Leo, him with very broken English and us with very little French and the next we were leaving with a baby turtle. When I say 'baby' you will probably envisage as we did a small baby turtle but in actual fact the 6 year old we were previously shown was actually a baby! Amy and Annie were sat on the balcony talking and Sheila was taking pictures then the next thing they knew everyone was running outside towards the nets saying "we're getting a turtle"! We'd all made a donation towards the foundation and that sealed the deal. We sat out on the pontoon with Leo while Dave caught 'Baldrick' (our chosen name). Baldrick was then tagged, weighed and measured and his credentials were written on the back of a postcard and handed to Annie. The next minute Mark was running down the pontoon holding Baldrick, transporting him in the dinghy to Blue Magic and filling up his bath in his cockpit with sea water.
 
  
 
Baldrick was caught and cleaned then measured. He was 43cm wide and 47cm long.
 
 
Finally he was tagged
 
  
 
Before we knew it he was rushed down the pontoon, loaded into the dinghy and transported to Blue Magic with the help of Paul and Annie
 
 
  
 
Once on Blue Magic Paul carefully placed Baldrick into the bath
 
 
Everyone was fascinated and amazed at what had just happened!
 
  
 
Baldrick soon settled in and relaxed in his new temporary home
 
We were headed round to the north west of Tahaa and Leo said that would be a perfect spot to release him back into the wild. It took around an hour to reach the bay and anchor. So the Miss Tippy kids went on Blue Magic to help look after Baldrick, they tickled him under the chin the whole way round so by the time we reached the bay he was well and truely relaxed and settled. The next stage was to get him back into the dinghy to take him to the shallows at the outer reef. It was all talked through so that nothing would go wrong, he weighed 12 kilos you see so it wasn't all that easy.
 
  
 
Mark was in position in the dinghy and Paul carefully passed Baldrick down
 
 
It took around 10 minutes to reach the reef by dinghy but it was fantastic. We wished Baldrick a bon voyage and set him free.
 
Today was one of the highlights of the whole trip. When I think about exactly what has happened in the past few hours I'm amazed, we are very very lucky people to be able to release a rescue turtle back into the wild to continue with his life. Although we do have to keep our fingers crossed for him as we read a letter advising that turtle No. R13676 had been eaten and killed in Papua New Guinea. It had travelled 7,600 kilometres over a period of 18 months and would have returned to French Polynesia to lay its eggs, so it would have covered more than 15,000 kilometres in its lifetime.
 
We look forward to our letters/emails updating us on Baldricks progress which will be tracked by the SPRED in Western Somoa and the University of Hawaii.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

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