Turtle Tagging

We had the chance to do some more turtle capturing today. This time Jessee got to bring one in. The group got three in all - two small Greens and one big Hawksbill. Jessee spotted the Hawksbill first and called us over for the chase. And chase we did! We were after it for probably 50 minutes or more. The water was really rough and Jessee and I followed it from one end of the bay clear across to the other side. The big ones can go longer without getting tired because it takes them less effort to move a given distance. I got really tired and called to the boat to shuttle me ahead. Jessee kept on its tail and kept on eye on it.

It was heading out towards deep water, so I dove down in front of it and tried to scare it back in the other direction, but it was determined to get out there. It was around this point that Jessee looked to her side to see a Hammerhead. A Hammerhead! I was oblivious. I didn't even know about it until well after things settled down. She says it was a really small one, a juvenile less than a meter long, and that it took a few seconds for her to realize what she was looking at. She kept her eye on the prize, however, and kept following the turtle.

At this point we'd been giving chase for quite a while and were completely knackered (so was the turtle though). I decided to call to our boat to radio the other boat for assistance. It's a good thing too. Jessee really needed a break. By this time the turtle had made it to significantly deeper water (about 30 ft) and wasn't far from drop-off. Fortunately John, a practiced free diver and the fastest swimmer of us all, arrived with the other boat and took over. It took him another 15 minutes or so, but he finally got it. He was in water well over 100 feet deep and just waited at the surface until it had to come up for air. When it started coming, he dove down and grabbed on. He didn't say, but it must have taken him for a ride. It was so big that it wouldn't have been possible to overpower it in the water. The only thing you can do is hold on and point its head where you want to go. You face the head upwards and it brings you up for air. Then you just have to keep its front flippers out of the water until the boat gets there - easier said than done when the water is as rough as it was and turtle is as heavy as it was (it weighted 32.5kg, about 71lbs.!). But we got there quickly enough with the boat to get it on board. In the process though, it bit John and nearly got a couple more of us. It wasn't major, but these big turtles can really do damage if they try.

Back at the Dock

The Hawksbill had a strange spike in it's neck as if it had mistakenly swallowed something sharp. It was old, though, because the skin was completely healed around it.

We removed it and cleaned the wound.

Measurements

We took this one to the dock straight away to take measurements and samples. I stayed to help with that and the others went back out in search of more. They eventually came back with two little Greens, one of which Jessee spotted, chased down, and caught all on her own!

"Pearl" - Jessee's little Green

Pearl weighed less than 5 lbs!

Waiting to go home.

The other little Green was missing a back flipper. It's not uncommon to see turtles missing limbs, but this one looked like a birth defect rather than a wound because there was no scaring.

Without ever trying it, you'd think there'd be no way humans could keep pace with a sea turtle. And certainly when they sprint we can't, but we're surprisingly good at out running them over long distances (especially if you can keep them come coming up for air that often). I once heard a story on NPR about humans being particularly well adapted for running marathons and, in fact, can even out run horses in a distance race. The same goes for sea turtles, I guess.

The Release

p.s. If you've been wondering about Suzie, she's still at home in the Black Rocks Bay area of East Caicos. I've been checking her location periodically to see if she's coming down to visit South.