Leatherback Turtles

Today I have a special guest blogger, Jack! He is my 10 year old brother. He is going to share with you our experience with the Leatherback turtles in Grenada. 

          Leatherback  Turtles

                                           By Jack Sandlin

Here is a painting on the wall of the turtle center at the beach. 

Last night we went to Levera Beach in Grenada to see turtles lay eggs. These weren’t just any turtles, they were the biggest turtle of all, the Leatherback turtle. The Leatherback turtle is the heaviest of all the turtles at over 2,000 pounds! That’s one heavy turtle and it can also grow to 7.2 ft long, which is longer than me!

It takes 70-80 days for a Leatherback turtle egg to hatch. Sometimes it takes them longer. Leatherback turtles can dive to 1,000 meters! That’s so deep! Why they dive so deep is because to get away from sharks and other predators.

Here is a picture about the life cycle of the Leatherback turtle. 

We had to wait about two hours for the turtle to come out from the ocean. While we were waiting we ate sandwiches, drank soda and played on the beach. Sam and I found a tree that had a lot of boards connected to other trees like a treehouse. After a while my dad told us that the researchers found a Leatherback turtle and we walked down the beach in a single file line to the turtle.

We had to use the red flashlight mode because the white light can blind the turtle.  The turtle was the biggest thing I have ever seen in my life! When she came ashore she dug a hole with her back flippers but the hole was too damp for her eggs so she dug another hole. That hole was further back on the beach and very deep. She was in a trance when she was laying eggs and that is when we got to pet the turtle. You could feel the bone in the flippers. Her flipper was kind of rough and the shell was hard and smooth at the same time. When she was done laying eggs one of the researchers said that there was 31 non fertilized eggs and 78 regular eggs. That’s 109 eggs in total! 

Here is the Leatherback turtle. She is huge!!

Here she is using her hind flippers to dig her nest. This took about 45 minutes.

Here I am helping the researchers count her eggs.

Here I am petting her while she is laying her eggs.

After she laid her eggs the researchers measured her and her nest. 

When she was done laying eggs it looked like she was stuck in the sand, at least that’s what Emma thought, but she was actually trying to camouflage her eggs so predators can’t find her babies.

When she was done camouflaging her eggs she went back into the water. This is when Sam was asleep already. It seemed that Sam had a very fun time. When we all went into the car we were all egghausted (he, he, he). 

I really loved going to go sea the turtle (puns, puns, puns). We all had lots and lots of fun.