“When I come across eggs which have gone bad or washed away by the tides, it breaks my heart, I always feel demoralised, but when a new nest is identified and successful hatchlings recorded, this reassures me there is hope.
Every 45 to 60 days after nest translocation I am the happiest. When I see a dune shape form on a nest I monitor, I always get renewed energy and immediately clean up the path to the ocean. It is a sign sea turtle hatchlings are just about to emerge.
If there are plastics or any kind of trash in their way, it will reduce their chances of survival by slowing them down and exposing them to predators or they could get too exhausted to crawl. There is always safety in numbers when they emerge and crawl to the water as a group, even with predators, it will reduce their mortality rates.
The entire migration from the nest to the water normally lasts for 30 minutes on average. One of the happiest moments of my life. I call it the miracle of nature. Everyone should experience it and commit to helping reduce marine turtle loss as well as help stop the pollution that is choking our oceans.
The feeling is never the same, each group of hatchlings makes me want to do more; cover more areas during nesting beach monitoring, verify as many nests as I can and translocate as many eggs as possible to higher and safer grounds. It is important to let them crawl by themselves because they need to ‘get the coordinates’ of the area to facilitate their return when they grow up.
To imagine that 25 to 30 years later some of the tiny sea turtles I saved when they were eggs, watched them crawl into the ocean, will come back to the same spot or beach, where they left as hatchlings, to lay eggs and bring forth the next generation of sea turtles, is nature’s way of saying don’t give up hope!
Female marine turtles return to the same beach they hatched on to nest. Marine turtles’ amazing ability to navigate comes from their sensitivity to the Earth’s magnetic fields.
The sea turtle conservation work I do entails working with communities to enhance sea turtles nest monitoring, verification, nesting sites protection, egg translocation and data collection for research.
Knowing that my children and grandchildren will probably see turtles, I saved when they were eggs, is fulfilling.” Hassan Bwanamkuu Mohamed, Marine project officer — WWF-Kenya
We are enhancing collaboration in sea turtle conservation through strengthening and enhancing the capacity of communities to carry out; nesting beach monitoring, nest verification, translocation, data collection as well as nesting sites protection.
Story Written by Judy Kosgei
