LANDRAIL POINT

24 April 2011

Photos by Jennifer Herrick

Foxy Lady and Bird Rock Light

The anchorage off the beach between Bird Rock and Landrail Point is one of our favorites, especially since there is a healthy green turtle habitat off Jesse Phillip’s house 200 yards away. 

Barbara and I celebrated Easter with our Seventh Day Adventist friends in Landrail on Saturday and had lunch with Willie Gibson and her family after the service. If Willie Gibson mentions a meal you just say, “Yes, please.” Willie is a great cook, and her smile lights up the darkest of days. 

Sunday morning we picked up “Captain” Leo Gibson, Nigel Sands, and Tommy Moss in Landrail, and Jennifer Herrick joined us to take pictures. Leo is now fifteen, but he earned the family rank of Captain several years ago when he announced his intention to become a professional mariner and began driving his father’s boats. 

So we took off for the turtle grass pasture in front of Jesse Phillip’s pink house where we tag turtles every year. Barbara and Tommy took turns as lookout, and Leo was the lead diver followed by Nigel. When the turtles slowed down I got in and Barbara steered. 

Tagging and recapturing turtles is usually our main purpose, but we are also studying the escape behavior of sea turtles and their possible ability to camouflage themselves as protection from predators. The turtles off the pink house are almost all dark brown with beautiful markings, and the escape behavior of the larger turtles is predictable - swim west into deeper water.

 

Tommy Spots the Turtle and Leo is Ready to Dive 

Our strategy is to spot the turtles right near the beach in shallow water and try to keep the boat between the turtles and the deep water so we can see them more easily and tire them out before they go deep and are harder to dive up. Green sea turtles have not survived for millions of years, however, by making it easy for the opposition.

The Chase is On

We got lucky with the first turtle that stayed in shallow water, and Leo dove it up easily – a recapture from last year.

Leo with a Green Turtle Recapture

The second turtle was a different deal. The turtle was larger and headed for the deep, and we ran wide open to keep up. Barbara began to have real trouble seeing the turtle, but it slowed down, and Leo went in to tow behind the boat. Finally the turtle slowed way down, and I went over. The turtle lay on the bottom, but neither Leo nor I could get down to forty feet. Slowly the turtle began to move, and I knew we could get it when it came up to blow. That took another half an hour while the turtle swam out to the wall which starts at 70’. Leo caught it when it finally came up for air. 

The next chase started out the same. After a short time in the shallows, the turtle swam under the boat and headed offshore. Leo went over and we towed him fast until the turtle slowed. Again I went in and the turtle lay down in fifty feet. Within twenty feet of the green turtle was a hawksbill resting and looking up at us. Nigel and Tommy were now in the water, and I told them to watch the hawksbill while Barbara hovered nearby watching all of us. After a few minutes the hawksbill started to move away, so we had to make a choice. We want more DNA samples from hawksbill, so we abandoned the green, and we all took off after the hawksbill which swam slowly out to the wall. 

I lost sight of the hawksbill, but Leo has younger eyes and kept swimming and pointing down. We followed that turtle back into forty feet and back out to the wall twice before it headed for the surface. Hawksbill do not head for the surface with the same sense of mission as green turtles. That turtle toyed with us, coming close, diving down, coming up, and then finally jetting away out of reach, blowing and diving back to the bottom and back out to the wall. 

The same drill again, and the boys all followed him. Then the turtle finally started to ease inshore, and I thought Leo might be able to dive him up, but the turtle never lay down long enough. I yelled at Barbara that we would keep at it, and she just laughed. I don’t know how many minutes went by, but the turtle headed back for the surface and started his toying routine again. I made a shallow dive, and he did a one-eighty and took off toward Leo. Big mistake for the turtle. Leo swam for his life and just caught the hawksbill as it hit the surface. 

Hawksbill Salute

That capture took an hour and a half. Everyone was tired, and Jennifer had gotten some great shots but had to go ashore to tend her baby. We ran out to Foxy Lady for peanut butter and jelly and back in to anchor off the beach. Then we worked up the turtles, and the boys paid close attention to the data and our lectures on the biology. It is always useful to show the differences between the hawksbill and the greens and try to understand how the physiology of each species suits its way of life. And we had all just witnessed differences in escape behavior.

Captain Leo, Tommy Moss, and Nigel Sands

And so ended a fantastic day. We had caught only three turtles, but all were healthy, and one was a hawksbill. The joy of the day was spending so much time in the water with the boys and watching the turtles swimming in their environment.