Okay, Turtles are Novel Again

Yesterday was an Okinawan holiday, making this a three-day weekend that I didn’t know about until last week. I wanted to make the best of it before this week’s expected typhoon, so I took Saturday to kayak to Kuba-jima, one of the last remaining islands awaiting my presence. It was primarily a fishing trip, as all kayak trips are, so when I arrived I ditched my camping gear and took off again for a westerly rocky point with Giant Trevally promise. Unfortunately the winds were almost too strong to fish so it wasn’t very productive. I returned to my beach in the waning moments of daylight so I could set up my tent.

Since the full moon was only a few days prior the tides were still high at dawn and dusk, so I had little kayak dragging to do. But as I exited the kayak I glanced down the beach and noticed a funny object floating in the surf. It looked like one of the many fishing buoys stranded on the beach, except that it wasn’t floating on top of the water but rather floating just below the surface. A few seconds later I realized what it was: a turtle.

Photographing a nesting turtle was one of my last big goals here on Zamami (I need some new goals). I did happen upon a huge female laying her eggs last August at 4am when I was going fishing, but that was a week after my camera had been destroyed by saltwater.

So I timed my kayak extraction with her being pummeled by waves and got myself safely above the surf level before pulling out my camera and sneaking closer. From what I’ve been told by people I consider experts on the subject, once a turtle exits the water she almost always continues with her mission, but I didn’t want to take any chances so I let her get almost to her nesting site before showing myself.

It was pretty cool watching a creature made for the ocean crawl up the beach. It was obviously a lot of effort and she would pause every 4-5 shuffles. It took about 15 minutes to go 20 meters where she started digging her big hole. For this she would bring her front flippers up and sweep them back, throwing sand 2-5m behind. I wanted to help her out with a shovel, but then realized she might actually be faster than me. And I didn’t have a shovel.

[throwing sand with surprising force]

When things got boring I’d run back to my tent and grab a little food, or take some long exposure photos (I didn’t bring my tripod so I used a laundry basket). Then I noticed a large object on the beach I hadn’t seen before. I went over to investigate and it was another turtle! This was really surprising because, while it’s okay to take pictures of a nesting turtle, the lights and beach activity are usually enough to deter other turtles from coming ashore.

[look above the styrofoam and green bush in the upper right to see the second turtle]

The first turtle was nearing her egg-laying stage. She’d finished digging the big hole and now she was working on the small hole with her rear flippers. She would actually dig a hole straight down by reaching each flipper in and scooping the sand out. It was one of the more amazing things I’ve seen in my life.

[her right rear flipper is full of sand, excavating the hole]

About the time the second turtle arrived 6-7m away, the first turtle gave up completely on her hole and moved a couple meters to start anew (I found out later this happens often). Both turtles were now on the same pace and, surprisingly, they both dropped their eggs (about 100 of them) and completed everything within four minutes of each other. The first turtle took three hours, including her false nest, and the second took two hours. One other piece of excitement was a big snake I discovered hovering over the second turtle’s nest while she was laying. I don’t know if the snake was curious or was really hoping to score some eggs before they were covered over. Alas, my camera flash scared it off.

[the first egg]

[a long exposure of the turtle making her way back to the ocean]

When I awoke Sunday morning I found the tracks of a third turtle that had nested after I'd gone to sleep. On my way back to Zamami I caught a bonito while trolling, which was a pleasant, three-dinner surprise.

Making sure to maximize the three-day weekend I went diving on Monday. This was partially because I wanted to go diving and mostly because I wanted to patronize the shop where a dive guide girl works whom I have a crush on. Naturally she was not working on the boat that day but instead taking two paralyzed people diving off a beach [(a) who knew paralyzed people could go diving? (b) am I an insensitive jerk if I was jealous they got her for the day?]. So I went with the one other customer, who happened to be the chief of the economics department of the U.S. embassy in China, and the dive guide who speaks less than one word of English. The highlight was getting narcosis for the first time, which is a really trippy experience. I went through a lot of air and struggled to keep my thoughts concentrated. A bit like the last kilometers of a marathon, except with the added reminder of equipment failure resulting in death. Scary, but I recovered well on the second dive.