The rescue of an Olive Ridley Sea Turtle

Yesterday I had the incredible opportunity to go a observe the move of an injured Olive Ridley sea turtle. My neighbor Liz had heard from the local turtle lady Supraja late Thursday night that a turtle had came ashore near a resort about 25 minutes south of our house. Supraja accepted the challenge to relocate this turtle to a spot to recuperate and rest. Before the turtle could be moved out of the area permission had to be granted so a hole was dug beneath the deck at Temple Bay Resort and the hole was lined with a tarp and filled with sea water. The turtle rested in this make shift home over night. Thursday morning I met Supraja down at Temple Bay and did my first photo shoot....of a turtle none the less! The turtle most likely had an encounter with a fishing boat resulting in a cracked shell and missing front flippers. She probably was coming ashore to lay her eggs but had a difficult time moving forward and seemed to be stuck on the beach. With permission granted to move to a new location, the turtle who is about 2 ft in diameter, took her first and hopefully only one car ride up to a turtle hatchery not far from our house. The turtle is now in her temporary home where she will receive medicine on her cracked shell to help heal the wound and some time for her missing flippers to continue to heal. In a few weeks she will be taken out to sea, beyond the breakers and released. What kind a life she will live will never be known. Perhaps she will learn to survive without her front flippers or not. The turtle also shares a home with other turtles who have yet to hatch. This particular area in Chennai is a very active spot for these turtle to lay eggs and groups actively walk the beaches at night looking for nests. When nests are spotted the eggs are dug up and relocated to safe spot and reburied at the exact depth of their original nest and hatch around 60 days later. We had the opportunity to release these tiny turtles last March.