The world according to me....

In early summer of 2001, following the tagging patrol from 2am to 6am on Awala-Yalimapo beach, Johan and I were sitting down to some coffee and our usual banter about who is better at badminton. Before we were finished, a phone call to the field station revealed that a female leatherback was crawling the wrong way, towards some village houses that had a few lights shining. We bicycled over and found the leatherback sitting in low-lying vegetation, some 100 meters from the dune line. In my previous experiences with misoriented turtles (none of them leatherbacks), I found that a gently tug or two of a flipper induced the turtle to move the other way. Feeling smug, I started to gently tug on the turtle's right flipper, so she would turn left towards the ocean. Nothing happened. I tugged some more. Still nothing. Then she moved to the right, contrary to my expectations. Determined to see it through, I continued to work in this manner although the turtle never turned in the correct direction, or she would turn too far. After about 15 minutes, Johan asked if he could try something. Carefully, he stood close to the turtle's head so its vision on one side was blocked. Sure enough, she started to turn in the direction we wanted. Slowly, by changing his position, Johan was able to get the turtle in the right direction. However, the sun was getting higher in the sky and the turtle was getting more tired, but the beach remained far away. We tried a new strategy: with the help of several tourists who were camping nearby, we moved the turtle onto a tarp and dragged it onto the beach. She made a few turns in the sand and started what looked to be like the initial stages of nesting. Both Johan and I were in need of more coffee, so we left without watching what happened next. We never heard any other news, so we assumed that she eventually went back to the sea.

I had completely forgotten about is experience until a few weeks ago when Gerard Collomb sent me this photo by email. He was there doing his own research in Yalimapo when he heard the commotion outside of the house where he was staying, and he apparently decided to take a few photos. I recently had the pleasure of seeing Gerard and Johan in Paris last April when I was there for a leatherback meeting. Perhaps we will all meet again someday in Awala Yalimapo....