In a Moment…He Was Gone: Sea Turtles

Daily word prompt: Evanescent: soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence; quickly fading or disappearing.

In honor of World Turtle Day, I wanted to share about sea turtles.

I’ve always had a respect and love for sea turtles. I could sit and watch them swim around for hours. They are so majestic and stunning.

My first experience with a sea turtle in the wild was when we lived in Florida near Amelia Island.

We would visit the beach and sometimes see little areas sectioned off stating there was a sea turtle nest. I was confused because I couldn’t see anything but sand! I soon learned that sea turtles nest IN the sand.

I saw the local conservation group was doing a sea turtle nest excavation and was so excited to have the opportunity to take my son and go watch.

Nest excavation is a process where they dig up the nest three days after the first hatchling has emerged. They take an inventory of the nest, in which the numbers of empty egg shells (shards), unhatched eggs, dead hatchlings and live trapped hatchlings are recorded. Each “clutch” consists of 80-120 eggs depending on the type of sea turtle.

Any live sea turtles are released into the ocean. It blows my mind to think sea turtles start out this small!

This is where my fascination blossomed.

The Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island, GA would rehabilitate sea turtles and release them at Amelia Island. Talk about an amazing experience! We would go to as many sea turtle releases as we could! We would all clap as they made their evanescent swim out to the sea…probably never to be seen again but now healthy and strong.

We eventually, moved from Florida to Hawaii! This move made my appreciation for sea turtles (or Honu as the Hawaiians call them) grow even more. With the crystal clear water, it is so common to spot them here! We also have Sea Life Park which is a great place to see them.

One of my favorite beaches is where we find them the most! This past weekend Oahu is experiencing a King Tide so the water levels are higher than normal. I think this resulted in even more sea turtles visiting “my” beach. Instead of 2 or 3 swimming in the lagoon, we had atleast 5 or 6 swimming around us…and even a Hawaiian Monk Seal!

We try to keep our distance and respect them as best we can.

However, these “little” guys swim right up to you and have even bumped into me unexpectedly!

Thank you for letting me share with you a little about my love for sea turtles!

If you enjoyed this, please share and Pin Me!

If this sparked an interest in sea turtles for you, you can find more information here:

http://www.defenders.org/sea-turtles/basic-facts

http://www.seeturtles.org/sea-turtle-facts/

With Aloha,

Lacy

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