An inspiring journey of a solitary creature
Olive Redley Turtle and its Navigation system
I hear a lot about olive ridley turtles from my wildlife-enthusiast friends. The turtle conservation project is at full surge in regions alongside the Maharashtra coastline. It is an initiative led and executed by the Forest Department and several wildlife NGOs to prevent turtle poaching and save them from becoming extinct. Survival of sea turtles is crucial for the ocean ecosystem as they are one of the keystone species: a vital constituent that has a direct impact on their surrounding environment, and the removal of which leads to ecological imbalance. The turtle conservation project has now grown to an extent that annual turtle festivals are held in places like Velas, creating awareness about the vitality of sea turtles.
The life cycle of these turtles is very interesting. The female comes out of the sea and lays eggs by digging a trench on the soft sand at the farther end of the beach. This usually happens at night. The nests are then collected and stored by the conservationists in enclosed, protected locations. The hatchlings, while coming out of the eggs, feed on the yolk, rich in nutrients. The hatchlings are then taken out of the nest and placed near the shore. The journey of life begins here! Slowly moving its flippers one by one, the little turtle begins its long walk to the sea.
I was lucky enough to watch this live at the Guhagar beach in Kokan. When the hatchlings were placed on the beach, for a few seconds they remained still on the sand, as if trying to sense the new environment. Slowly, they started moving their flippers in the direction of the sea. Sensory cues like sound and illumination from the ocean currents help them navigate in that direction. As a turtle is capable of detecting Earth's magnetic field, the field lines associated with a particular geographical location get stored in its memory. So when the turtle grows up, and although it might have travelled miles of distance, crossing different seas, it still returns to the beach on which it was born and took its first steps into the water. The flipper tagging of turtles enables us to understand where they've come from and the distance covered by them.
This slow journey is full of grit and determination. There were small pebbles on its path, which the little turtle dodged skillfully. The wet sand was also quite an obstacle as the hatchling's flippers would get stuck in it. Despite all this, the turtle would continue to move as if it were born with the realization that the sea is its only destination and survival. The first wave that splashed across the turtle literally put it off guard, while it continued to flap, getting accustomed to this new exercise of swimming through. Maybe the walk on the sand up to the first wave serves as a warm-up for the little turtle before it actually starts swimming. Another wave and the turtle was nowhere to be seen. Breathing during the first few minutes is difficult while the turtle keeps its pace with the large waves. It cannot breathe underwater due to the absence of gills and has to pop up on the surface every time to get a gulp of fresh air. It's quite an independent creature without anyone to guide it as to what to do next. My friend gifted me a Marathi book on the olive Ridley turtle, written by Rucha Namjoshi and conceptualized by Mohan Updhayay- a really good science communication effort.
Not many survive till the end of the journey, but each one of them gives their best shot during the process. Although a just-born, the little turtle still gives everything that it's capable of to get into the sea. Whenever I require motivation or need a force to move ahead, I can refer to this picture etched in my memory: The tiny, solitary turtle marching towards the infinite sea across a pebbled path, swimming through the huge waves, one flap at a time.
©Neha Kanase
