First Crawl

Yup, you read the header right.... we've had our first turtle crawl. A loggerhead. It's what is called a "false crawl." This is when a turtle comes ashore to lay her eggs, but for some reason does not lay her eggs. False crawls happen for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the turtle is disturbed, so she abandons the effort. Sometimes, the turtle encounters an obstruction on the beach (furniture, trees, debris), so she abandons the effort. Sometimes, the turtle will have an obstruction inside, and cannot physically lay the eggs. Whatever the reason, this was a false crawl. She will come ashore again, and it will be in the same general location, as turtles mostly return to the very same beach where they were born to lay their eggs. Amazing.

Nature is a mystery to me, a fascinating mystery. I am walking assigned beach territory daily for nests, lots of us are. We're looking for nests of reptiles that are almost prehistoric, yet we know virtually nothing about them, comparatively speaking. We know they are out there, we see them. People have hunted them for eons, eaten them, taken them for decorative purposes... trophies so to speak. Made hair combs out of their shells, made soup with them, yet until recently no one really gave much thought about their place in the eco-system, and their importance.

Sea turtles are a bellwether species. A recent (first ever) global study of the impacts of bycatch on turtles shows a worldwide crisis unfolding because of poor management of global fisheries. Millions of sea turtles have become the unintended victims of a failure to properly manage the worlds' fisheries, with more and more of their habitats clogged with hooks and nets.

The ocean is vast, but so is mankind's reach.

Those of us all over the world making daily walks looking for turtle tracks focus on the positive. We have to. Looking at the negative, I think I might not want to get out of bed tomorrow. But, we cannot "go there." There are turtles coming ashore, no matter what. For this moment, just a blip in the Universe, I want to do what I can to make a difference and help sea turtles survive. Even now, as I write, somewhere in the world a sea turtle is hauling out of the ocean to nest. Under the starry sky, with a near full moon, just as it was millions of years ago, just as it should be now.