Turtle Soup

Last week we got a last minute tip-off that some day old baby turtles were being released...we dropped everything, jumped in the car and bombed down the East Coast Road.

Here's the David Attenborough bit...The Olive Ridley Sea Turtle commonly lays it's eggs on the shores of the Bay of Bengal but the eggs are endangered by predators such as rats, dogs, seagulls and crabs.

Volunteers patrol the beaches between January and March and once a turtle is found laying her eggs and she returns to the sea the eggs are carfully dug up and moved to a protected hatchery and buried one foot deep in the sand. Approximately 40-45 days later the turtles begin to hatch and they are gathered and released into the ocean when they are just one day old.

The batch we released was small, about 30 or so turtles but I have heard of as many as 100 being released at one time. The little black cuties were about 1 1/2 -2 inches in diameter and were quite active. At high tide we took them down to the sea and gently set them upon the sand to begin their life journey, they must make their own entry into the water. Those that survive their journey will return to this very same beach in about 15 years time to lay their eggs...I hope they make it back!

A wonderful and humbling experience. I cried when they disappeared into the waves and Ellie has hardly stopped talking about it. If I now ask Luke about Turtles he holds out his hand and points to his palm while chattering away about something that begins with 'T'.

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