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Friday - OY MORE TURTLES OVER HERE
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date: 16/1/2009
Author:Jess Howard
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CONDITIONS
Weather: Hot and Sunny | Air Temp: 29ºC | Wind: East/North Easterly 10-15 knot | Water Temp: 27ºC | Water Visibility: 20 metres | Sea State: Slight
ISLAND LIFE
Critter Encounters:
In one word, today may be described as “amazing”, “spectacular”, “incredible” or “fantastic”, but one word can simply not describe the events of today, so we will use all four. To begin, divers at the Lighthouse early morning found two Manta Rays cruising in the deeper areas. As they watched, one Manta Ray descended down to the Bommie into a cleaning station and proceeded to have tiny cleaner wrasse remove bits of mucus and dead skin from its body. How incredible to see that symbiotic relationship first hand. Snorkelers on the Glassbottom boat at Sandy Seconds found a lone Leopard shark resting on the sandy bottom. Not perturbed by the mass of snorkelers above him, he stayed in the same position for the whole snorkel expedition. AWESOME!
Guests interested in turtle encounters gathered in the Education centre after lunch to hear about the exciting turtle developments on the island. Not a night goes by without some sort of turtle activity down on the beach! Fantastic! Fish Feeding as always gathered an upbeat crowd as Moon Wrasse, Sergeant Majors and Sea Mullet swirled around their feet and ankles eating up their fill and tickling guests as they swam.
The afternoon snorkel safari was described as “OH MY GOD AMAZING,” by one family. At the Lighthouse keyway, a group of seven Manta Rays followed the snorkelers the entire hour they were in the water. Another five drifted in and out of appearance, but the faithful seven never left! WOW! A Black-tip reef shark made an appearance swimming quickly under the snorkelers, then disappearing just as quickly. Lots of turtles also vied for the attention of the snorkelers in between the majestic fins of the giant Manta rays.
The turtle trek took an awesome surprising turn when the first lot of Loggerhead hatchlings were found at nest # 24. Six little escapees were collected in the afternoon to be released at night away from the watchful eyes of seagulls. Just before the beginning of the turtle trek, movement was reported at nest #7, one that had already emitted about twenty hatchlings. After about five minutes, one little head poked out, then another and another and another until thirteen more little hatchlings appeared. So now we had six Loggerhead hatchlings and thirteen Green hatchlings to release. The hatchlings were released at the northern end of the airstrip, with a tunnel of torchlight so that we could see them. Afterwards, another shout of “OY MORE TURTLES OVER HERE” got the attention of a few guests and staff. High up in the vegetation, staff spent two hours collecting trapped little hatchlings from the ground. Another 45 Green turtle hatchlings were released into the water. After that experience, you would think it would be time for bed, but no the turtles have other ideas, because as we sat and waited for the last little hatchling to disappear into the water, a big female Green began her way up the beach to nest. What a night! We can honestly say that the whole day and night can be described in many words, but we’ll just take a few! “OH MY GOD, AMAZING!!!”
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Hatchling run - Jess
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