The Night We Rescued the Baby Leatherback Sea Turtles

originally posted 15 November 2014

We lived on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean. We'd hop over to the island of Tobago quite a bit because flights were only $29. Great deal and loved Tobago.

One visit was quite memorable. We had been seeing numerous baby leatherback sea turtles that week. The turtles would lay their eggs on the beach, cover them up and a couple months later when the babies would hatch, the babies would move toward the safety of the ocean.

We were walking back to rooms late one night when a lightning storm hit. It was quite a storm and just lighting up the sky non stop. The babies were clearly confused because they were all the way up the beach on the dirt and heading toward the parking lot and road. The light from the frequent lightning was confusing them and there were more turtles than we could count.

So, in the dark, in a lightning storm, about eight of us spent well over an hour searching out the babies and running them down to the water. They were everywhere. They were in bushes, on the sidewalk, in the sand.

It was an adventure and we were soaked but truly a night we'll never forget.