Whale Sharks

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 24 2007 | By: admin

Yesterday morning we got a call to a neighbour’s house. A large turtle had laid her eggs just in front of their house. I called Watamu Turtle Watch (who are the local experts) whilst Volker went over straight away. We were advised to make sure the nest was covered up properly and marked appropriately. In 50-60 days from now those little turtles will hopefully hatch and make their way down to the ocean. We have to make sure that any bright lights around the nest are switched off because this can cause the hatchlings to become disoriented. We will have some volunteers around that time so they will be fortunate enough to do nightly stake outs, watching for the hatchlings to appear.

Turtle hatchlings have a few days of energy from their yolk sac after they hatch. This small store of energy has to help them dig their way out of the nest, make their way to the ocean and swim out to sea to their feeding grounds. Often people are tempted to help the baby turtles on their journey from the nest. This doesn’t help the turtles at all and is in fact counter-destructive. They need to find their own way to the ocean to prepare them by getting their circulation going and muscles working. Turtles respond to the earth’s magnetic forces and this helps them navigate the seas. To interrupt this journey may interfere with this important ability, which means that the turtle might get lost in the ocean. Female turtles return to the beach they were born to lay their own eggs some 20-30 years later.

From egg to adult only one in a thousand turtles will survive to return to their nesting beach.

You really can help make a difference. Donate to us or go to www.watamuturtles.com and dig deep to save our turtles!

This is the nest and you can see the laboured tracks made by the mother turtle as she slogged up the beach to lay her eggs.

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