Chance <3
Most amazing day!! Ok I’m going to try to get right to it!
So Hannah and I went out to zealandia to do a little photo shoot at around 6 or
6:30 this morning. When we only had about 20 minutes left we booked it over to
the cliffs to get some pictures by some rocks in the water. On our way back
Hannah stops in her tracks and low and behold… A baby sea turtle was trying to
make its way into the big ole’ blue!!
Honestly it is so hard to explain feeling. It was just so
special. He would be going for a little bit and then the water would come up
and push him back up and kind of toss him a bit. It was so hard not to just
grab him and plop him into the water. I just had to remember that if he was
going to be strong enough he had to take the major step by himself, and by
helping him I’d really be crippling him.
Well I am happy to report that after a few minutes when the
water came up it didn’t push him back anymore; it took him with it and swept
him out to sea to begin his long turtle life! :) We named him chance.
It definitely goes at the top of the list of best mornings
of my life! There’s just this crazy fulfillment of my day now.
I have now decided that after years of my favorite animal
being a giraffe, it is now a turtle! I think there are some great analogies if
you compare turtles to the human race. Sea turtles usually hatch at night and
the way they find their way to the ocean is because the moon reflects off the
water and makes it bright, so they just fallow the light. There aren’t a high
percentage of turtles that make it into the ocean. Lots of times only one from
batch even hatches. But even hatching doesn’t guarantee survival. I think the
ratio is like 1 in 1000 baby turtles makes it to adult hood. :( So sad.
We named our baby turtle chance for a few reasons. First of
all it was by total chance that we came upon him and were able to witness that!
(Freaking lucky!!)
And he was given his best chance to make it, and survive. If
we’re going to make it in this world than we all have to take our best chance.
Our after thought to picking him up was like.. Crap! What
if we shouldn’t have done that! So just so you know… We researched if it does
them harm somehow. And what I found is that as long as you are supporting under
their shell, but now having your hand wrapped around them and not squeezing at
all than they’re ok. So basically if you’re holding it properly there was no
danger to the turtle, just to me because it said something about them containing salmonella,
since they just hatched I think. And we saw him make it safely into the water. So my conscience feels better knowing I didn’t hurt him! But for future
reference, you are not supposed to pick them up. It was only for a couple seconds while we
snapped a picture, but we should’ve thought about it.
Nonetheless I have an awesome picture (or 5), and my baby turtle
made it safely to the sea :)
