Baby turtles

Eight o’clock. We knew turtle hatchlings from nest 585 were very likely to emerge tonight after a check on the nest today so we took a mat, sat next to the nest, and waited.

Other volunteers were sitting at the centre of Chagar Hutang beach, which overlooked the entire bay, waiting for mother turtle to come ashore to nest. Located at the northern part of Redang Island, Chagar Hutang is a nesting site for green and hawksbill turtles. Torchlight was prohibited in case it discouraged mother turtles from coming ashore.

Still, the four of us could see each other’s silhouette clearly with a half moon up. I cleared all the broken branches and leaves surrounding the nest so we would know for sure the black spot on the sand was a hatchling’s head when it emerged.

Nine forty. I spotted a small moving black spot at the centre of the nest.

“Look!” I whispered. The rest leaned forward. We all held our breath in anticipation.

Something was crawling out. A few seconds later, it was out. We could recognise the shape of the baby turtle with its tiny shell and flippers.

Once it was out, it crawled forward with a burst of speed. There was a small slope immediately in front of its nest and “swoosh”, the little one went sliding down the slope. Unperturbed, the baby turtle continued to push forward towards the sea. One of us went to alert the other volunteers.

Back at the nest, more baby turtles were emerging from the nest. Ten, twenty, thirty…I lost count. The hatchlings marched towards the sea in a flurry under the moonlight.

A few got lost in the bushes and a volunteer used his flashlight to guide them out. They always follow the light. It was not uncommon to find them crawling into the kitchen when someone forgot to switch the light off.

Ten to 15 minutes later, the last hatchling was out. We followed the little fellow as it scrambled forward to catch up with its siblings. Ocean waves rushed up to greet it and a few seconds later, it was swept into the open sea.

A few days later when the staff excavated the green turtle nest, 106 empty eggshells were counted.

(Marine biologists estimate that only one out of 1,000 hatchlings will survive the rough sea and human threats to reach maturity.)