13JUN2007 "Bofa Turtle Watch sea turtle hatching"

On Wednesday, Veronica Hammond called us to let us know that a turtle nest on Bofa Beach was close to hatching. She invited us to come around in the evening to watch the baby turtles make their way to the sea. Veronica and her husband, Bob, started the Bofa Turtle Watch 5ish years ago with donations from Kilifi residents with beach property. The turtle watch pays fishermen 1000 Ksh to report turtles nests that they find. If the nest is in a dangerous spot, they carefully move the nest to a protected ridge of beach near their home. If the nest hatches, they pay the fisherman another 1000 Ksh (as much as a fisherman might make in two weeks, and significantly more than they could get by selling the eggs). So far, they have protected and hatched 60-70 nests.

We arrived at 5:30 and followed the Hammonds and a few of their other friends out to the beach. One of their ascaris, who they trained for all things turtle-related, carefully scooped a few inches of sand away from the nest. Suddenly, out popped the first tiny turtle, scrambling and shoveling his way out of his nest. He was quickly followed by two dozen more identical siblings, furiously fighting the sand and crawling over one another to get out. They scattered in every direction once they cleared the pit and we picked them up and pointed them back toward the beach when they strayed too far. A couple of kids were curious about all the wazungu milling about on the beach and came to watch. Veronica invited them to join in and help and we all carefully herded the turtles toward the surf avoiding the crab holes. As soon as they crested the edge of the dune and saw the ocean ahead, their courses towards the water became straight and true and we no longer had to reorient them. We followed them to the waters edge. As the reached the surf, their clumsy shuffling was transformed into graceful gliding as the first wave washed over them. Some found themselves back on the beach when they got trapped in a wave, but they turned around and repeated their determined trudging towards the ocean. Eventually all of them managed to dive under the crashing waves and make it beyond the surf break. We watched until we were sure each one was safely out to sea.
Turtles apparently always return to the beach where they are born to lay their own eggs, so it is important that they make the trek themselves from nest to water. But they don’t reach sexual maturity until 30 years old, so the Hammonds won’t see those tiny turtles return to Bofa to nest…but the kids who helped us will - it’s their heritage.