We went on a Turtle Watch organized by Alonda and her Green Team (student Community Service group at school) to the local World Wildlife Fund (WWF) site near Karachi (we have mentioned them before.).
The first picture shows the beach at night. The lights in the background are where the beach curves and the white light on the right is from the porch light two houses down. The green-white of the waves is caused by the bioluminescence of phytoplankton which emit light when they are tossed around by the waves breaking on shore. We had a barbecue here for the kids. We don’t show the students, nor speak overly much about the school due to security concerns by the US consulate. See us next summer!
This is Alonda holding a one-day old Green Sea Turtle. The WWF guy brought in a bucket full of them to show the students. We later took them all down to the ocean!
This is a full-grown turtle laying eggs on the beach in the dark. The turtles come to lay eggs starting at about age 15-18. They come about three times every season to lay about 100 eggs each time. The entire process of coming ashore and digging and laying and covering up and getting back to the ocean can take all night. The WWF guy says that about 6-8 turtles per night are coming ashore on this particular stretch of beach.
This is a freshly laid egg. The shell is not hard. The eggs bump around and get covered with sand, so they need to be flexible. The babies will hatch in about 45 days.
The beach was crawling with baby turtles looking for the ocean! It was kind of scary to walk around without a flashlight; we were afraid we would step on them. The kids had a lot of fun picking them up and putting them in the water.
After the turtle finishes laying, she spends a lot of time covering them up.
Mom looks tired!
This is the site as seen by GoogleEarth. You can use the lat/long to go to it on your own computer. The holes on the beach are what the turtles leave! Yes, you CAN see them from space.
The first picture shows the beach at night. The lights in the background are where the beach curves and the white light on the right is from the porch light two houses down. The green-white of the waves is caused by the bioluminescence of phytoplankton which emit light when they are tossed around by the waves breaking on shore. We had a barbecue here for the kids. We don’t show the students, nor speak overly much about the school due to security concerns by the US consulate. See us next summer!
This is Alonda holding a one-day old Green Sea Turtle. The WWF guy brought in a bucket full of them to show the students. We later took them all down to the ocean!
This is a full-grown turtle laying eggs on the beach in the dark. The turtles come to lay eggs starting at about age 15-18. They come about three times every season to lay about 100 eggs each time. The entire process of coming ashore and digging and laying and covering up and getting back to the ocean can take all night. The WWF guy says that about 6-8 turtles per night are coming ashore on this particular stretch of beach.
This is a freshly laid egg. The shell is not hard. The eggs bump around and get covered with sand, so they need to be flexible. The babies will hatch in about 45 days.
The beach was crawling with baby turtles looking for the ocean! It was kind of scary to walk around without a flashlight; we were afraid we would step on them. The kids had a lot of fun picking them up and putting them in the water.
After the turtle finishes laying, she spends a lot of time covering them up.
Mom looks tired!
This is the site as seen by GoogleEarth. You can use the lat/long to go to it on your own computer. The holes on the beach are what the turtles leave! Yes, you CAN see them from space.
