The best turtle experience yet.

It all started with our usual cup of coffee on the beach crest at 5.30am, but today Melv never even got to chance to sit down for his. As soon as he came up on to the crest to the table, he caught sight of a ghost crab with a green turtle hatchling in its claws, we rushed round the nest and there true enough the nest was hatching in front of our eyes.




There were two holes that had appeared in the sand, both about the size of a saucer, and inside I could see a mass of small hatchings all squirming around standing on each other in an attempt to get out.

The small heads poking up through and their front powerful flippers trying to get purchase either on the sand or in amongst their brothers and sisters to pull them up and on to the beach.

They had travelled a long way in the sand, the nest typically between 50cm and 60cm deep. But we had a job on our hands, the crabs were evil and they looked to every opportunity to grab hold of the small creatures and then make a get away. Although chasing them and the stamping feet does make them drop the hatchlings, it is a different story if they run under the vegetation, where it is impossible to get hold of them. But there were plenty of us, after I had raised the alarm people came rushing out of their houses like there was a fire.

After the first batch of youngsters had come out of the hole we helped them out by lifting a lot of the sand away and relieving the weight off them.

Once they were out we collected them all in a bucket so that we could release them all together and stand a chance at keeping the crabs away. Aride has a very large population of crabs, whilst they do an excellent job at keeping the island clean they can devastate a turtle nest in next to no time. J

The hatchlings were really strong little fellas and they had big necks and looked so healthy, just like perfect little turtles, their shells were dark and black, smart looking with their white trim. Their flippers were continually on the go, whirring round trying to propel themselves as quickly as they could to get to the safety of the sea. I lifted one up and it resisted my fingers as it tried to ‘swim’ away, they had only just opened their eyes which were like small slits, but the shells were so perfectly formed, just perfect and smart. Not in the slightest bit ugly like the hawksbills tend to be, but real smart.

It didn't take us long to empty the nest and then move them further down to the beach to release them. We needed to give them a bit of a run, but we needed to keep the section of beach clear of crabs.

We lifted them gently out of the bucket and as soon as they touched the sand they were away, they powered on down the beach towards the light, like little clockwork toys, one after another they headed down to the sea, it was magical to watch.

We were just in time the sun was just coming up, soon it would be daylight, but it was a perfect morning, the sea was a lot calmer than it had been and they stood a good chance, we were giving them a head start, which these green turtles desperately needed, they need every chance they can get. With 7 of us on the case the crabs didn’t stand chance and the hatchlings could take all the time they needed to reach the safety of the sea.

We managed to release a total of 130 into the water and there were only 5 dead in the bottom of the nest, which may have been crushed or died from a lack of oxygen, and then there was a late developer still coming out of its egg shell. This one we will hold on to until it has used up its yolk sack and them let it go at dusk, probably in a couple of days time.

Once we had finished excavating the nest we had found a total of 144 egg shells and so it is possible that we may have lost 8 to crabs or they came out early and got away, but hey 131 out 144; 91.5% aint bad!