A Sea Turtle Love Story

All sea turtles are endangered and deserve our respect and protection.

Tracking Green sea turtles in Mexico

This was the morning after we caught her off Pelican island somewhere in a lost lagoon in Baja California Sur. We caught a few so that we could measure, sample, tag them before releasing them into the lagoon fitted with a little GPS device so that we could track their route in the lagoon. The other volunteers had picked ‘their turtle’ and I got the remaining one. They all picked the big ones, she was the smallest of the batch (a little bigger than a large pizza).

Well, that was love at first sight! I gave her a name for the purpose of identifying her in our records. Her name is Yarrow, which is the English version of my nickname: Akilee (Achillée in French).

I got a treat from this little sea turtle. After taking data of different kinds and installing a little GPS, it was time to release them. Back to the Great Blue and Freedom! The 3 other volunteers as I mentioned had chosen the big ones. It then took several people to weigh them, move them, and of course, they had to be 2 at least to move them from land to water. When the sea turtles see the water, these creatures who are so slow on land get excited. The only thing they want to do it is to get away from you and go back to their Kingdom… They touch the water, they flap hard and they’re gone… It goes so fast!

Yarrow and I were the last to go…

First I could carry Yarrow on my own! No need for help: that was just her and I. I approached the water. I lowered her down delicately, and… she did not move! I got scared: ‘Is she dead?!’ I said with great worry. Nobody was saying a thing… I touched her, and she started to flap away slowly, quietly, with no urgency. I followed her moves and then she slowly disappeared. The tortuguero said to me ‘It never happened before! Maybe she did not want to leave you’ and I chose to believe so…

A day or 2 later, we went tracking Yarrow. We found her tracking device on the beach at the edge of the lagoon, close to the mouth of it at the edge of the roaring Pacific ocean. She had broken free easily of her device…

Yarrow the Green Sea Turtle is somewhere free and big now – I just know it!…

The seven marine turtle species are currently as assessed by the IUCN

Source: IUCN Red List (Click the links to view the current Red List Assessment).

Juveniles green and black turtles

• • Loggerhead (Caretta caretta): Endangered (A1abd)
  • Green turtle (Chelonia mydas): Endangered (A2bd)
    • Full assessment document (PDF file)
  • Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea): Vulnerable (A2bd) [Globally]
    • East Pacific Ocean Subpopulation: Critically Endangered (A2bd+4bd)
    • Northeast Indian Ocean Subpopulation: Data Deficient
    • Northwest Atlantic Ocean Subpopulation: Least Concern
    • Southeast Atlantic Ocean Subpopulation: Data Deficient
    • Southwest Atlantic Ocean Subpopulation: Critically Endangered (D)
    • Southwest Indian Ocean Subpopulation: Critically Endangered (C2a(ii))
    • West Pacific Ocean Subpopulation: Critically Endangered (A2bd+4bd)
  • Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata): Critically Endangered (A2bd)
    • Full assessment document (PDF file)
  • Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii): Critically Endangered (A1ab)
  • Olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea): Vulnerable (A2bd)
    • Full assessment document (PDF file)
  • Flatback (Natator depressus): Data Deficient

by Claire O’Neill 

Find out more about our wild encounters browsing our Notes from the Field