Swim turtle swim

We went to the beach last week with the grandparents. It was a great day. We played in the water and along the shore. Tres and Scott were walking along the beach with Tres’ Grandma Anita. Scott saw a little baby turtle along the beach. That turtle had been injured by a crab. Nature. However we thought that maybe if the turtle was allowed to recuperate a bit he might be okay. So Jim rescued the turtle from the crab. We were going to take the turtle to Ramon and Natalia who study the turtles with WSC.

Ramon and Natalia came to see us at the beach when we were there. Jim and the boys had attempted to take the turtle to them at the same time they showed up. My dad and I told them about the baby turtle. They asked us where the turtle was found. They had been looking for a nest in that area that they had expected to hatch. After checking several locations, Natalia found the nest and all the egg shells left behind by the turtles. Jim and the kids came back as she was digging the nest out to count the shells to see how many turtles hatched.

Super cool to watch them go through the process to determine how many made it and if there were any eggs that didn’t hatch. The Hawksbill female lays about 140 eggs per nest. In this nest there were 137 eggs. Of that about four didn’t hatch. We also found this little guy. He didn’t make it out when the rest of his brothers and sisters made it out. The boys found one turtle that nature kept from making it, but because of that turtle we found a nest and rescued this turtle. Just one of the wonderful experiences we encounter here on a daily basis.



We got some video of this little guy making his way out to sea as well. I will post it in the near future.