Ascension Island
It is 2300 and we have just returned from Long Beach on Ascension Island where, together with volunteers from the Darwin Initiative Turtle Project, we were able to observe green sea turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. These huge females, weighing 300kg or more travel all the way from the coast of Brazil to visit these nesting beaches. Between September and March of each year the males and females gather offshore to mate. The females may mate with several males and are able to store semen so that a clutch of eggs may have been fertilized by more than one male. The females come ashore at night, dig a nesting pit and then lay their eggs. Finished, as in the case of the female pictured, they return to the sea. When the baby turtles emerge from the nest about 65 days later they make their way quickly to the sea, trying to avoid predation by frigate birds and land crabs ashore and groupers and other fish in the ocean. The young turtles then ride the south equatorial current to the north coast of Brazil in the area of Recife where they grow to adulthood. Several thousand then make the trip to Ascension each year to breed and nest. Tonight there were about 20 large females nesting and a large number of baby turtles making their dash to the sea. It was truly a grand evening.
It is 2300 and we have just returned from Long Beach on Ascension Island where, together with volunteers from the Darwin Initiative Turtle Project, we were able to observe green sea turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. These huge females, weighing 300kg or more travel all the way from the coast of Brazil to visit these nesting beaches. Between September and March of each year the males and females gather offshore to mate. The females may mate with several males and are able to store semen so that a clutch of eggs may have been fertilized by more than one male. The females come ashore at night, dig a nesting pit and then lay their eggs. Finished, as in the case of the female pictured, they return to the sea. When the baby turtles emerge from the nest about 65 days later they make their way quickly to the sea, trying to avoid predation by frigate birds and land crabs ashore and groupers and other fish in the ocean. The young turtles then ride the south equatorial current to the north coast of Brazil in the area of Recife where they grow to adulthood. Several thousand then make the trip to Ascension each year to breed and nest. Tonight there were about 20 large females nesting and a large number of baby turtles making their dash to the sea. It was truly a grand evening.
