Hi all,
A bit of turtle news for you!
We recently found 3 newly hatched Hawksbill turtles on Kandooma, the island I am working at in the Maldives. Obviously confused and disorientated by the resort and the few lights there are at night, they were found crawling away from the beach. I was very fortunate to be around to film and photograph them as they were gathered up and released at the waters edge.
There are very few nesting sights within the Maldives for Green turtles, let alone Hawksbills. Having seen green turtles hatching at Sangalaki, Indonesia back in 2005, it was fascinating to see the difference in the shells and behaviours between the two species. These hawksbill turtles were fairly inactive in the water - possibly from the exhaustion of crawling in the wrong direction for too long. They all folded their front flippers up behind their shells and only really used the back flippers to propel themselves.
Last year, while working at Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru in Baa Atoll, Maldives, we had a few weeks where some green turtles were coming to nest on the island. Incredibly good news considering a large resort had been built on the island and it wasn't deterring them. However, it had created a few obstacles. One green turtle, having laid her eggs, was trying to find her way back to the shore but accidentally fell into a guest swimming pool. Resident marine biologists helped get the enormous female out of the pool and down to the beach for a successful release.
All in all, it has been quite scary seeing how disruptive humans and their resorts have been to the life cycles of turtles. It makes me wonder how many baby turtles have hatched and crawled the wrong way to die somewhere out of starvation or exhaustion? How many adult turtles have been deterred or confused after a resort has been built on nesting beach?
At least we have saved a few and the work of many marine biologists across the world is surely helping to cut down our impact as much as possible.
Adam
) "sour and sweet" stories about humans and turtles. Thinking out loud, maybe the resorts could use a big black courtain at night in the beach-resort limit during the hatching month...
