Nest 4: Season's End

Each hatchling could be the one in 1,000.

10/4
This morning after we had put away all our camping things and we're walking to the car, a couple of women we're walking up with six cups of coffee! I recognized them from yesterday. They were had stopped by to look at the nest, and we got to talking and joked about how the volunteers needed coffee in the morning. I was surprised that they actually did it! It was awesome. They also brought sugar, vanilla syrup, coconut milk, and a spoon to stir with!

I  was so exhausted from all the nighttime hatchlings over the past few days. I got a couple of hours of sleep before Luke called saying that he was going to the beach at 11. Of course I wanted to go with him. When we got to the beach, a hatchling was just entering the ocean. Lots of tourists were watching and cheering.

This morning the sand was so hot that it would fry a little hatchling. The volunteer at the time said that she had let the hatchling crawl to the end of the shady part of the sand, then put on a glove and scooped him into a bucket with sand in the bottom. Then she took him to the edge of the wet sand and let him crawl the last ten feet or so to the ocean.

She also told me that sometimes at Ho'okipa Beach, where the green sea turtles bask, parents will try to put their babies on the basking turtles for pictures.

The undercurrent here is very strong. The lifeguard, Terrence, is very sassy on the loudspeaker, especially after he's warned people of something multiple times and they still keep doing it. "We have posted warning signs in the park entrance. You all saw them when you came in. We have placed some additional warning signs with brightly colored flags around the beach. Please stay out of the undercurrent. If you want to get your neck broken, going out too far in the water is a good idea. Including with your boogie board. Be careful when the waves break on the shore that you do not get swept back into the ocean.  Key word here is break. You could break your arm, or even your neck and be paralyzed. Parents please prevent your children from being too far out in the waves. Also this applies to adult size individuals. Mahalo."

There were no hatchlings for the rest of the day, but there were seven that night.

The next morning was the excavation! It was basically the same as  the last excavation,  so I won't write a lot of details. But I will say that only 70 hatchlings that emerged from the nest before today, which would be an extremely low yield.

The coffee ladies came again! Yeah!

The excavation of the nest and handling of all hatchlings was done by certified professionals and state biologists. Please never touch or approach hatchlings or adult sea turtles in the wild, no matter how cute they are.

There were several live hatchlings just under the top layer of sand. Beneath them was a layer of eggshells and unhatched eggs, and a lot of live hatchlings under that. In all, we found about 69 live hatchlings, bringing the nest total to around 140!

There was one hatchling who hadn't fully emerged from his shell. He was very tired but managed to get out. He was a little bent and curled up due to still being in the shell, and still hasn't absorbed all of his yolk sack. Luke turned him over and I saw a little sack on his belly. The yolk is very important because it is what gives the hatchlings their initial 24-hour burst of energy, allowing them to get from the nest to the shoreline, and then from the shore to the seaweed beds floating in the ocean, or wherever they go for the first 20 years of their life. Nobody really knows.

After the excavation, all the empty shells, the dead hatchlings, and the unhatched eggs are put into egg cartons and sent to a lab on Oahu for study. This involves tissue samples, DNA tests, and population genetics analysis.

Well, that's it. Hatching season is over. Now I will spend my time guarding the basking turtles and educating tourists on Ho'okipa Beach, collecting data, and learning more about identification of individuals!

 in the first picture, you can see the yolk sac on the belly of the hatchling.

 The second picture shows the excavation.

 The third picture shows some unhatched eggs and dead hatchlings that will be sent  to the lab in Oahu for study.

 the fourth picture  shows a state biologist carrying  a bucket of hatchlings to the ocean as people prepare to watch their release. 

 The fifth picture shows the last hatchlings of the season making their way to the ocean.