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My assistant Mauricio (sounds like moh-REE-cee-oh) Handler was with me on the beach. As we watched, the giant female leatherbacks began to dig their nests and lay their eggs. Female leatherbacks always lay their eggs on warm, sandy beaches. Usually they return to the same beach where they were born.
Sadly, leatherback turtles are in danger of extinction. People have been hunting leatherbacks for centuries. But over the past 30 years, too many have been killed for their meat. People raided nests and took all the eggs. Today, new laws help protect nesting leatherbacks and their eggs. But they still face many dangers. They get tangled in fishnets. They get hooked on longlines meant to catch large fish. Houses and hotels have also been built on some of the leatherbacks’ favorite nesting beaches.
I moved in close to one of the turtles. Leatherbacks only come out when it is dark. I knew the camera flashbulb would disturb her. So I would rely on the moonlight.
The turtle found a spot she liked. She made a shallow pit in the sand with her front flippers. Once she was comfy, she dug a deep hole with her hind flippers. She took long, deep breaths as she dug. To me, it was like a sound from the prehistoric (sounds like pre-hih-STORE-ick) past! She laid more than 80 round, white eggs in the hole. Then she covered them with sand.
We watched as the turtle headed back to the water. Having a chance to photograph this huge creature in the wild was thrilling—almost like seeing a living dinosaur!
A newly hatched baby leatherback scurries to the sea. It will spend the rest of its life in the water.
It takes 60 to 70 days for a leatherback’s babies to come out of their eggs. While we were taking photos of the nesting leatherbacks, eggs from other nests began to hatch. We stopped to take photos as the tiny, striped hatchlings hurried across the sand. Their mothers were long gone. Leatherback babies must look to the sea for food and protection.
Did You Know?
Leatherbacks can dive as deep as 4,000 feet (1,219 m). Even the most skilled human scuba divers cannot dive much deeper than 1,000 feet (305 m).
For the lucky few who make it to adulthood, there aren’t many ocean creatures that can harm them. But humans have created new problems for these ancient (sounds like ANE-chunt) animals. I wanted to see for myself the dangers leatherbacks face once they leave the shore. It was time to get into the water!
I talked to local fishermen and found one who was interested in helping. He said leatherbacks sometimes got tangled in his fishnets. He did what he could to save them. But sometimes he was too late. If a tangled turtle is not pulled to the surface soon enough, it will drown.
The fisherman said we could follow him while he fished. If any turtles got caught, we could see how it happened. Maybe we could even help. We rented a small boat. The captain of our boat helped us sail close behind the fishing boat.
We watched as the fisherman set out a mile (1.6 km) of fishnet. Floats held up the top edge of the net. The rest of it hung down in the water, like a curtain. After several hours, the fisherman pulled in his net. Dozens of fish were caught in it. He put the fish in his boat. Then he set the net out again.
Our captain moved our boat slowly alongside the net. I sat in the front of the boat. The stars shone brightly above us. I kept an eye on the net below. I had my fins, mask, and air tank ready, in case I needed to dive.
Later that night, Mauricio and I spotted an adult turtle in the net. I quickly pulled on my diving gear and went over the side. As I swam down, I could see the leatherback struggling.
Leatherbacks never stop swimming. The turtle paddled and paddled with its long flippers. The more it paddled, the more tangled it became. I took a few pictures of it. Then I had to help it. I grabbed my knife and began to cut the net.
As I worked, the current began to wrap me up in the net, too. I had to stop helping the turtle and cut myself free first. Then I cut the turtle loose. I watched as it swam off gracefully, into the darkness of the sea.
Jellyfish, or jellies, are a leatherback’s favorite food. Jellies are mostly water, with a few minerals and a dash of protein thrown in. How do leatherbacks grow so big on a jelly diet? The answer: they eat a LOT of jellies. Scientists videotaped one leatherback eating 69 jellies in three hours. Each jelly weighed about ten pounds (4.5 kg). That’s 690 pounds (313 kg) of jellies! A leatherback’s throat is lined with three-inch (7.6-cm) spines. These spines help the turtle swallow its very slippery prey—and keep the prey from coming back up.
I found this leatherback swimming in deep water. The two yellow fish clinging to her side are called remoras.
Now I had pictures of a leatherback underwater. But I wanted to take photos of one swimming. I knew I’d find turtles swimming around Trinidad. But the water there is too murky to get good photos. I needed to find leatherbacks in clear water. So I went to the other side of the world. To the Pacific Ocean!
I headed for one of the turtles’ favorite hunting grounds. It is in the deep water off the Kai (sounds like KEY) Islands in Indonesia (sounds like in-doh-NEE-zhuh).
My assistant Jeff Wildermuth joined me on this trip. When we got to the Kai Islands, we talked to some local fishermen. They gave us tips on how to find turtles.
The fishermen go out to sea in long, narrow boats. Boats like this have been used in these islands for thousands of years. I decided to use one of them to search for leatherbacks. I knew it could be dangerous. The boats are very tippy when the waves get steep! But this was my best bet for getting close to the turtles.
The local people told us they often found turtles around a certain island. Jeff and I set up our tents on the beach there. Then we decided to try our luck.
Jeff and I eased our boat off the sand and into the choppy water. We watched for the glint of a black turtle moving under the silvery waves. Meanwhile, the sun blazed down on us. We gulped water from our water bottles. We paddled around the whole island, searching. Before we knew it, the sun was going down. We hadn’t seen one turtle.
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