Turtles & Dolphins

[Hayley F]

Hi,

I've been reading through previous posts but couldn't really find what I was looking for (perhaps I didn't look good enough, sorry if that's the case).

I'm off to Tobago for the first time in a few weeks and would love to do a "turtle watch", also a boat trip to see dolphins. Can anybody recommend how I would arrange this?

Any advice would be welcome.

Hayley

[John Hill]

Seeing the turtles is being in the right place at the right time and depends upon where you are staying. If its near to turtle beach I do believe you can be picked up when a turtle comes a shore to lay its eggs.

We saw at least 6 last year during the first two weeks of May a wonderful sight, would love to see the little turtles go the other way, maybe one day.

If you go to Forums -> General Questions & Comment -> Giant Leatherback Turtles or type Giant leatherback turtles in search you will find an interesting photo from last year.

[Steve Pitts]

Hi John

I don't know if caught a program, on BBC 1 a couple of weeks ago.
It was the first of a three part feature on the world of reptiles.
Leather backs were shown, coming ashore on a beach in Trinidad and the females laying eggs.
Apparently around 30% of the eggs are smaller, infertile eggs, so that when the young hatch, these dummy eggs collapse and give the baby turtles the air space that they need to move below the compacted sand and dig themselves out.
Isn't nature marvelous?

The hatchlings were then shown, heading for the sea and it was empahasised that they head for the starlight on the horizon. Any man-made lights, such as hotel lights or torch light, will confuse them and they head in the wrong direction. I know that beach-side hotels in Turkey were a problem some years ago, (with the turtles that nest on Turkish beaches), so turtle watchers should avoid torches and camera flashes at all costs.

As the baby turtles headed out to sea, you couldn't help but wonder how they would survive in such a vast and hostile environment.

Then the narrator informed the viewer that leather backs travel the world's oceans for 10 years, before returning to the same beach that they hatched on. Disturbance of traditional nesting sites may mean that the females will not lay elsewhere. They even migrate to the arctic ocean, where they can regulate and maintain their body temperature (very rare in reptiles) in order to survive the extreme cold. They feed on jelly fish and squid and often confuse plastic rubbish, such as disgarded carrier bags, for items of food.

This kind of pollution, accidental bycatch in fishing nets and destruction of nesting habitat, is thought to mean that the Giant leatherback turtle may be extinct within 10 - 15 years.

Can it really be, that we will let these creatures disappear during our lifetimes?

Steve