Green Sea Turtles

November 9, 2011.  Over the weekend of October 28-30, I went to Pangumbahan Beach near Ujung Genteng on the South West coast of Java with a group called GoWild to do some hiking and see nesting green sea turtles, Chelonia Mydas.  (Unfortunately Mark couldn't come along because he had an important meeting that he had scheduled for that Friday, and even more unfortunate, he was told at the last minute that he would not going along to the meeting.) 

We were supposed to see the sea turtle hatchlings released on Friday evening, but since no eggs had hatched, that didn't work out.  The turtle nests are moved and hatched in a secure area to prevent people from digging up the nests to get the eggs to sell.  When they hatch, they are then released to sea, which is the part we were hoping to observe.  Later, we did go to the beach and saw sea turtles nesting.  It was quite dark and I couldn't really see very well.  I thought we would get to sit and watch a turtle come to shore, dig her hole, lay her eggs, and then return to sea.  In reality, we just got to see a turtle laying her eggs for a few minutes and then we had to leave.  It was still a really cool experience. 

Saturday morning we left early to do a hike along the coast to Ombak Tujuh.  We had a nice swim before we turned around.  On a the way we saw many tracks on the beach made by the nesting sea turtles returning to sea the night before. 

The trip was planned to watch the release of the hatchlings on Friday to avoid the large crowds that come to see the release on the weekends, but the turtles did not cooperate.  Fortunately some turtles hatched for a Saturday evening release.  I think everyone in the group was a bit overwhelmed with the huge crowd on Saturday, but I was happy to get to see the sea turtle hatchlings head out to sea even though it wasn't as peaceful of an experience as I had imagined.  I guess I thought there would only be a few people there.  I was wrong.  I was one of the lucky people to get to release a hatchling; this may have had something to do with me being a bule (white person) or perhaps the enthusiastic look on my face as they were handing out individual sea turtles to people in the crowd.  While I'm not a huge fan of crowds, I do think that it is positive that people are interested in nature.  I'm interested in knowing how activities like these increase people's awareness of and concern for environmental issues. 

Sunrise over Pangumbahan Beach, Ujung Genteng, Java

In Tidal Pool

Brittle Sea Star in Tidal Pool

Tidal Pools along hike

In Tidal Pool

Green Sea Turtle Tracks

We walked past this beach

Swimming spot at turn around point for hike

The rickety bridge was quite rickety

Sea Turtle release #1

Sea Turtle release #2

Sea Turtle release #3

Sea Turtle release #4 - go turtle go

My favorite shot

My favorite shot really captures the moment, the beauty of the hatchlings making their way to sea and the fascinated crowds pushing and shoving to get the perfect shot to capture the moment.  I stayed back, tried to stand my ground, and just happened to snap this shot in the chaos.  Below is a short video of the hatchlings making it to sea.