Egypt4u

Got up today, down to brekkie by the beach, got myself settled in my lounger, vaguely registered there were lots of sea birds in the air and actually thought to myself that somebody must be throwing bread. Then a little kid runs by yelling to his parents something about "turtles" so I watch the direction he is running in and see a small group of people down on the beach.

Over I stroll and OMG OMG OMG OMG it is a nest of sea turtles hatching out!! Right in the middle of a busy man made, man groomed beach every night out is popping baby sea turtle after baby sea turtle!!



No idea how long they'd been appearing but one after the other like clockwork the heads were popping up through the sand and out they came flapping their way to the ocean.





And naturally I only had my small old hand held Nikon point and shoot! UGH! however it was totally a once in a life time phenomenal sight to see these little guys parading down the beach towards the water although almost each and every one of them veered to the left of the nest towards the sun keeping the ocean on the right. They all were doing a 45 degree to the water (not heading in a straight line to it).

Saw the birds get a few but there was soon enough tourists to watch the parade of turtles make it down to the water and not get picked off on the beach. Waves have been really high and "manta ray" warnings posted with RED flags waving indicating 'stay out' but a few men did wade into the water and flapped their t-shirts at the birds 'til the turtles basically disappeared from view.



So, am a bit burned but it was worth it watching the turtles emerge and make their way to the water.

Last year there was a big sign with a fenced off area where there was a turtle nest and the Resort forbid anybody to even go near it. They must have missed this one and all the sand between the nest and the beach had been groomed flat at some point during the night but then totally walked on by umpteen tourists leaving crater sized landscape for these tiny turtle to navigate. Quite a few were falling into deep foot imprints but they were definitely mightly flapping the legs to get out and continue the quest.

Super interesting morning today! A 'once in a lifetime experience'

Must have been a fantastic sight LLL. We have all seen them on TV flapping their way to the ocean but you are so lucky to see them for real

That will be a memory to treasure til the day you die, LLL!

That's fantastic! How wonderful thank you so much for the pictures, I'm a great turtle and tortoise fan.

Wonderful experience.

At one time i used to go frequently to Gozo (sister island to Malta) and many times at the local market you would see adult turtles on their backs in full midday sun,obviously for sale to eat but then a few of the local diving schools started going round the market and buying these poor creatures,they then took them to the beach right in front of our apartment and released them back into the sea.Not the ideal way probably as paying the fishermen would only encourage them to go out and catch more,but at least they didn't end up on someones plate.

They are amazing creatures and they can live for SO long. We have seen some in the sea more than 6 feet in diameter, huge...
I had forgotten but when we were in Sri Lanka in 1997 we visited a turtle rescue centre. I have heard it said that by nature they follow the light of the moon to get to the ocean. Sadly, when there are other lights along the top of the beach they go towards them in the wrong direction and become exhausted.
Whatever the real reason, this sanctuary nurtured the young turtles before taking them to the sea. We did have an opportunity to handle turtles of various sizes.

These little guys were such perfect replicas of the adult version and not once did they stop flapping their legs. Unfortunately the hotel didn't notice this nest and these guys popped out right in the middle of sand that was well walked on a full of footprints so they were falling upside down into foot print craters and then struggling to right themselves. Somebody got some of the hotel staff who were shocked and on the phone call to somewhere and I could frequently here "Si si TORTUGA Ahora" (yes yes, turtles now) and then instructed everybody to not touch them. Not that anybody was trying to but seemed to me leaving them on their backs struggling was only exhausting them when they actually needed gently picking up/ scooped up and put closer to the water.

I was telling another couple today on the bus about this (partly cause I can't stop thinking about seeing this) and the man said there are different types of sea turtles which has now caused me to Google them:

Information About Sea Turtles: Species of the World

Loggerhead (Caretta caretta) ...
Green turtle (Chelonia mydas) ...
Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) ...
Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) ...
Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) ...
Olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) ...
Flatback (Natator depressa)

I can't tell which kind I saw and I need to research better photos and figure out which species are native to the west coast of Mexico.

Definitely was a once in a lifetime. I LOVE turtles (along with most other animals) and these little guys were so special.

Grandad wrote:They are amazing creatures and they can live for SO long. We have seen some in the sea more than 6 feet in diameter, huge...
I had forgotten but when we were in Sri Lanka in 1997 we visited a turtle rescue centre. I have heard it said that by nature they follow the light of the moon to get to the ocean. Sadly, when there are other lights along the top of the beach they go towards them in the wrong direction and become exhausted.
Whatever the real reason, this sanctuary nurtured the young turtles before taking them to the sea. We did have an opportunity to handle turtles of various sizes.

I also have visited that place and probably around the same time as you.Fascinating place and they do a lot of conservation work also.

Did you see the albino turtle ? which they said would never be released as it would be attacked and probably killed.

@Hurghadapat
I don't recall seeing an albino Pat but more than twenty years ago; I can hardly remember where I lived
Now, what's my name

It was almost deja vue this morning as another hatch had emerged. I made it to the beach in time to see one waiter pick up the last baby turtle and carry it down to the hard sand of the beach by the water.

At some point last night another nest emerged, again not fenced off or known to the hotel staff. This last little guy went parallel to the water and whilst people were hovering around nobody was picking him up (probably a good thing) and he looked exhausted as even when he got put onto the hard sand he was traveling in bursts of about 3 or 4 leg flaps then would stop and rest. He did seemingly swim away easily enough once he got into the water but ?? hard to say if he'd be able to rest enough to get his strength back up to live a life swimming the oceans successfully.

Lots of feet prints on the beach but the other ones must of hatched out at some point in the middle of the night or the wee hours early in the morning and these guys were considerably higher up on the beach then the group I saw two days ago.

They are definitely fascinating and I have to admit to really loving turtles and tortoises. Not sure why I'm so totally fascinated but I really do love them.

We followed a few weird looking tracks one day on the beach near where we stayed in Crete and realised they were leading to a nest side at the edge of a sand dune. Luckily we saw a man who regularly came along and marked and fenced round the sites so we were able to give him some extra work that day as it was well away from the normal nesting area. They are well protected but sadly they had not hatched by the time we left and the next year we were told we missed it by about 2 or 3 days

I really envy you LLL it must have been a wonderful sight.

Was fantastic. Was really impressed me was that the babies are exact replicas of the adults. I knew they were but it hadn't sunk in how perfectly exact they were (unlike babies of other animal species).

Loved seeing them.