Last August I visited Turtle Beach Lodge with several friends. One night we were taking a walk on the beach after dinner. The stars were out and the breeze was cool. Suddenly I heard a sound I recognized to be the flippers of a sea turtle as she dug her nest in the sand. I stopped and waited to hear it again. Using flashlights with a red covering, to keep from distracting the turtle with white light, we followed the sound to find the turtle. It was an Atlantic Green Turtle, and she was very large. Her shell was about 50", and we guessed her weight at about 250-300 lbs

We sat quietly for over an hour, using our red filtered flash lights only occasionally to check her progress. I had learned from turtle guides in the past that it is important to limit whispering and movement when observing the nesting of sea turtles. If they are disturbed by white light, noise, or movement they will sense danger and return to the sea without nesting.

With each pass from her flippers as she dug her nest out she flung sand ten feet. Before long we were covered with the sand. After a laborious effort to dig herself into a wide hole, she began to vary her method of digging. She began carefully scooping out sand from just under her tail, where she would eventually deposit the eggs in a smaller hole.

When all the preparations were ready she rested. I wondered how many times she had repeated this nesting ritual. She was old. As a female, I’m sure I would find the number of nestings staggering. She was tired. I was excited to see the eggs start dropping. She was taking all the time she needed. I sat patiently waiting and waiting.

Finally she began depositing eggs, one at a time, into the small hole. We carefully withdrew one without her noticing. It was slimy and a little larger than a ping pong ball. This was the largest turtle I’ve seen lay her eggs, and the largest eggs. I carefully returned the egg to its hole. It took her about an hour to lay them all. Once again the ancient creature rested for a little while. Then she began to use her flippers to cover up the nest. It took about another hour to finish the process. It is important that she covers all traces of the nest so that animals don’t dig them up. The most dangerous of all animals to the turtles is man. For centuries people have been catching the turtles for food and profit.

It is illegal now, but poachers still take large numbers of sea turtles and their eggs every year. It is a big problem that the Costa Rican Environmental Agencies fight regularly. By midnight she had finished her task. She turned back toward the sea and slipped away. My friends and I stood there in the moonlight feeling a sense of awe. What a privilege it had been to witness this event. She was amazing.

Six weeks after the female turtle lays her eggs the baby turtles hatch in their nest. They can tell when it’s day or night by the sun’s heat on the sand above them, or by its coolness. When the sand is cool the baby turtle’s instinct tells them that it is time. They crawl out of the hole, and race to the sea. If they are very lucky they will reach adulthood and return to the beach where they were born to renew the life cycle.

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