Turtle...on the beach!

On the Beach!

On March 18 of 2014, I was going to go and set my new traps for fishing and our friend Ellen was on the beach cleaning. She told us there was a dead turtle "over there". We went over to see where she was pointing and there was a baby turtle. At first we thought it was dead, then we touched it and it started flapping it's little flippers at us. For about 20 minutes, we watched it rolling in the waves. Then I thought, we should call the Roatan Marine Park, so I ran to my dad at the house and said "There is a baby Hawksbill turtle on the beach, so we should call the marine park!". I ran back down to the beach with a bucket to put it in and my mom asked me, "Whose idea is this?" and I said, "Papa's idea".  I put the turtle in the bucket with some sea grass. We waited and looked around and there were tons and tons of horse eye seeds on the beach. They are usually rare and we find about one a week. There were lots of them and I filled a whole cup! Then we saw some rope tangled in a bamboo branch in the waves, so we took a knife and chopped off all the rope. Next we took the rope and put it in the trash. We were still waiting for the marine park.

The turtle had a greenish reddish shell and instead of one big shell, it had different plates together. Then papa came down from the house with Lucia because she wanted to see the turtle. When the Marine Park came, they said that the turtle wasn't hurt and they were going to bring it to Maya Cay. The Marine Park said we could contact them if we wanted name the turtle. Then they took it to Maya Cay. The end.

Marino and I went down to the beach to see the storm around 6:30am. Ellen was already down there scouring the shore for trash. She mentioned she had seen a baby sea turtle! Marino and I walked down the beach and discovered a small Hawksbill turtle the size of Marino's hand. It had been washed up to the high edge of the surf AND it was alive! We gently picked it up and placed it into the surf. We watched it get washed up turned around repeatedly. He didn't seem to be injured! When the waves would come he would lift his arms over his head and it looked like he was protecting it. Marino got a bucket to put him in, Dan called the Roatan Marine Park, AND we all waited and observed the turtle. Lucia timed how long he was holding his breath under water, Marino documented his discovery of a new to him species of a blue jellyfish, I collected colorful bottle cap trash, Ellen stretched, and Dan finished breakfast at the dock, all while we waited for Jocco from the RMP to arrive.

            When he came, he told us the tiny turtle was just a month or two old and would be taken to Maya Cay to be protected so that it reach maturity unharmed. It would be returned to our beach in about a year! We were welcome to name him, check on his health, and maybe even visit him. Marino and Lucia were thanked for being such good stewards of marine life. What an awesome start to week 2 of homeschool!