Making a difference one turtle at a time

It was the day before my birthday and I was thankful for an end to a long stretch of night shifts. I had a couple days off, so I rounded up a few friends and we headed off to Bureh, one of the most beautiful beaches I have visited in Sierra Leone. We were all ready for a fun and relaxing time by the sea. The tents were set up and the hammocks were swaying in the wind. Our dinner of fresh rice and fish lay on the table in front of us as the sun was setting over the horizon. I could already tell it was going to be a great birthday. But, I never could have expected the adventure that was ahead of us that night.

As we were finishing our quiet dinner, one of the guys from the beach rushed over to us and told us they had just caught a turtle in their fishing nets and that we needed to come and see it. We rushed down to the other side of the beach to see what all the excitement was about and were stunned to see a large, nearly 100-kilo Leatherback turtle. The turtle was lying on its back and had blood on its face from where it had been kicked. Most of the villagers didn't seem to have any interest in releasing the turtle. The men were rough with it and some of the older kids were kicking its flippers as it lay helplessly on its back. This was not Sea World. If we wanted to set the turtle free, we were going to have to do more than tell the people that it was a type of turtle that is critically endangered.  One of the friends with me had recently spent time on a place called "Turtle Island" and had learned about some of the endangered turtles. He called a friend who works with a local group to release captured turtles and educate people about endangered species. One of the men took the phone and listened to this man explain that it is illegal to keep this type of turtle. The phone call ended and all the villagers began to discuss.

As we all stood around the turtle, waiting and wondering what the villagers would do, my friend Jess lovingly named the turtle "Nelson" after Nelson Mandela, who fought for his freedom (it turns out the turtle was a female, but we decided to keep the name)...Jess leaned down and tried to sneakily remove the ropes that were holding the turtle's flippers. She pointed to show me what she was doing and put her finger to her lips. I couldn't help but smile at her genuine efforts, knowing that even if we got the ropes off, it wouldn't immediately be free. There was a crowd of at least fifty people surrounding the turtle and it still needed to be flipped over (which would be impossible to do without anyone noticing, seeing as the turtle was so large). And then there was also the slowness factor. Turtles are called turtles for a reason. It was obvious that we wouldn't be able to free Nelson without the consent of the villagers. 

 

After a long discussion and another phone call to the turtle-advocating people, we finally convinced the villagers that it would be best for them to release Nelson, as they could receive very heavy fines for keeping the turtle captive. They agreed to release the turtle, but didn't show a whole lot of enthusiasm about it. Once the decision had been made to set Nelson free, the spectacle that unfolded was a few white people trying to get a very large turtle back to the water with a big crowd of Africans standing around watching. 

Flipping Nelson over



 

It took a couple of attempts to flip Nelson over...after all, the Leatherbacks are the largest turtles in the world! Once Nelson was flipped over, it became even more apparent just how exhausted she was...there was very little motivation to scoot out to sea after all that she had been through. Jess and I decided that she needed a little bit of encouragement, so we started helping to push her to the water from the back. "Come on, Nelson, you can do it!" we yelled (I can just imagine what the Africans were thinking watching two girls trying to push a turtle out to sea and cheering it on like small children ha ha).

A few of the guys joined us and helped us push Nelson along....there was probably about 100 meters that she had to travel to get to the edge of the water. We could feel the muscles under Nelson's shell as she pressed on toward the water. She was tired, but now a little more determined. I think she could sense that we wanted to help her (I'm sure that's just the animal lover in me)...We were all relieved when we finally saw her swim away into the ocean.

I know some of the women were upset that we let the "fine meat" go back to the sea, but in the end, I think the villagers were content with their decision. It is also a relief to know that they have very successful fishing there and that the people there seem to be well-fed. I'm sure they felt that they could've made a good profit off the tourists from the turtle meat, but I can guarantee that none of us would've been buying it! 

I'm sure it seems a little bit silly, but the whole experience of setting Nelson free was somehow exhilarating....I told Jess that I felt like I was in a sequel to the "Free Willy" movies and she agreed that this was better than National Geographic...During all my trips to Bureh Beach this year, I had never once seen a turtle, much less a Leatherback. Our little adventure with Nelson was very special and certainly made it a birthday to remember!