Sea Turtles

Dylan Berget rescues baby turtles at Windmill Beach

I never would have thought I would be swimming with sea turtles on a fairly regular basis.  But here I am diving and snorkeling with sea turtles.  Then on two separate mornings during this Christmas season, we found struggling baby turtles on the beach.  So now I feel a connection to these gentle giants of the sea, and have concluded they really are special. There are two types that swim in the waters near Guantanamo Bay;  Green Turtles and Hawksbill Turtles.  So far, I have only swam with the Hawksbill, and I am fairly certain those were the babies we found on the beach.

Since finding then on the beach, I decided to learn more about them. This is what I found out. Both Green Turtles and Hawksbill Turtles are on the Endangered Species List. The Green Turtle can grow to more than 3 feet in length and can weigh up to 400 pounds.  They are estimated to live to be 80 years old. The Hawksbill Turtle grows to about three feet in length and weighs from 150-200 pounds. They are estimated to live from 30-50 years. Hawksbill Turtles return to the beach on which they were born every two to three years to nest.  They can lay up to 5 nests with an average of 130 eggs. The eggs incubate in the sand for about 60 days.  When the babies hatch they take several days to dig out of the nest. This is where life gets pretty dicey for these little guys. Hatchlings are innately programmed to go toward the light.  On a moonlit night, this should be the water.  Unfortunately if there is any artificial light on the beach, baby turtles can get confused and go the wrong direction.  This is what happened to the first baby turtles we discovered.  They were found heading toward the light pole on the beach.  Many of the babies died of dehydration, but we managed to find about 30 that were still alive and get them into the sea. Now normally I would not recommend helping nature.  It is usually best to leave nature to its own devices; however, it was clear that these babies would have died far from the surf had we not intervened.

I hope it was the right thing to do.  I hope we gave them a fighting chance. Another problem for hatchlings are all the natural predators.  The second impromptu rescue effort happened when we showed up to the beach to go diving and found it covered in Turkey Vultures.  We soon found the source of the Turkey Vultures’ fascination:  baby turtles.  Again many of the turtles were headed in the wrong direction and the vultures were having a feast.  The ones we found alive had obviously just made it out of the nest because they were much more robust than the ones we had found on the previous occasion.

Annie Berget : turtle rescuer

Some interesting baby turtle facts… Baby turtles do not have sex chromosomes.  Their gender is determined by the temperature of the sand the eggs were nested in.  Temperatures of 83-85 degrees will result in a mix of males and females.  Hotter temperatures will produce more females and cooler temperatures will produce more males. According to the Oceanic Society, “If the hatchlings successfully make it down the beach and reach the surf, they begin what is called a “swimming frenzy” which may last for several days and varies in intensity and duration among species. The swimming frenzy gets the hatchlings away from dangerous nearshore waters where predation is high. Once hatchlings enter the water, their “lost years” begin and their whereabouts will be unknown for as long as a decade. When they have reached approximately the size of a dinner plate, the juvenile turtles will return to coastal areas where they will forage and continue to mature.” Finally it is estimated that only 1 out of every 1000 hatchlings will make it to adulthood.  We hope we helped to up the odds a little here at GTMO.  In ten years we will need to come back and see how many juvenile turtles are swimming around the shore off Windmill Beach. Hawksbill Sea Turtle