While visiting my sister in Barbados I got the opportunity to help look for baby turtles to rescue. Unfortunately in modern society that lives by the beach, the lights that the humans produce are brighter than the moon and the baby turtles follow the light to get to the ocean, which causes them to go the wrong way, become stranded and die which is tragic. On Barbados local conservationists have several strategies for trying to prevent this including digging ditches or building barriers between the nesting sites and the road so that the turtles can’t physically cross them but the most common strategy is for volunteers to keep an eye on nesting sites, figure out when the turtles are hatching and monitor them to make sure they are getting to the ocean safely.
When my sister said we were going to look for turtles of course I was excited! As a lifelong animal lover, this was a great opportunity. What I wasn’t expecting is how hot, dirty, difficult and dangerous that task is. Our guide took us to an area that was near a nesting site. It was kind of late in the season and we didn’t get out there very early so our chances of finding anything were pretty low. Our guide was fearless, caring only for the turtles and without regard for her own safety would walk through trash infested yards and even sewage pipes in sandals and a skirt! I was horrified at the amount of trash and waste there was everywhere. I even spotted a used condom laying on the ground. By some miracle we found two baby turtles near death in a yard. One was doing ok, flapping its flippers vigorously, a good sign. The other didn’t look so good. It was lethargic and had an obvious injury to its flipper. We took them both down to the beach straightaway and released them into the ocean. I have said more than a few prayers that they made it and will grow into happy adult turtles.
What I learned that day is that saving baby turtles is hard, dangerous work and my respect for these selfless, brave volunteers shot up about 1000%. For all the conservationists out there on the front lines, thank you for all you do!
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