I am back in from the beach already, while chris and sara continue to patrol. I thought I would just write about the one turtle we've seen so far tonight before I turn in. A terrific night out there, calm winds and quiet surf and I was returning from the southern inlet when I saw through my scope a leatherback up at the dune in MacArthur Park. Great, I thought, first turtle of the night. I stopped my atv and snuck up to see what she was doing. She was already laying eggs and she seemed to be about half finished. I was just bending down to check for tags when what I saw next nearly stopped my heart. This beautiful turtle had been hit by a boat and was sliced deeply on her back from nearly her shoulder all the way to her rear flippers all along her carapace. I could clearly see down into her body cavity and I could see lung tissue exposed, and several bone fragments just hanging on with a bit of skin. With each breath she took, her carapace opened and closed. It was really the most horrifying injury I've ever seen on a turtle and it took me a moment to regain my balance. I did check her tags then and found that this was Venus a turtle we'd seen way back in 2001 when we started this project and not since then. Still I could not believe that this turtle was nesting at all with the injury she had. I called for chris and sara to come down we needed to document this injury and take photos of the wound.
They arrived shortly after Venus had begun covering with her front flippers each of us marveling at how she was doing this. We took detailed notes and some photos. it looked like a really fast speed boat had hit her. The main gash on her carapace had been caused by the part of the motor right in front of the propeller - she also had 6 cuts perpendicular to the gash that was from the propeller raking along her carapace. One of the most upsetting things about this was that we could do absolutely nothing for her to ease her pain (which she most certainly was feeling) or clean her wounds. Now perhaps since she was nesting she was doing all she could do just fine on her own, but knowing that she would have been a perfect big turtle (160 cm) had she not been hit by a boat, made us feel a little queasy. She finally finished covering up her nest and slipped into the water. She seemed to hesitate just as she entered the water and she swam very slowly away from the beach. We all silently wished her luck.
Chris and sara will report in later if they find anything else out there tonight..
