Guess what we did yesterday!

While I should have been writing interesting blog posts on important topics, we were on a mission ... a mission to save baby sea turtles.

My friend, Julie, phoned in the early afternoon to say that the sea turtle nest in her garden was seeing some action. (She'd relocated the nest a couple of months ago, after realizing the mother had laid eggs too close to the waterline.) She found one baby in her kitchen the night before, obviously disoriented by the house lights and missing the ocean by too wide a margin for survival. The experts had been consulted, and the conclusion reached that the nest should be carefully excavated and remaining eggs collected.

When I picked Sam up from school, I told him about the situation.

"We must go to Julie's and care for them!" was his immediate response.

Not wanting to fry the little reptiles as they made their way to the sea ... and they have to make their own way, as that's how they're able to find the way back to lay eggs years down the road ... we put off the project until the sun's rays were less direct, which had Sam anxious and raring to go.

By the time we arrived, two dead babies had been found ... perfectly formed little Hawksbill Sea Turtles, and most likely smothered by the sand during their struggle to the surface ... the massive boiling up of babies expected when 143 eggs hatch out at close to the same time didn't happen, for some reason, so it was a much harder process than it should have been.

Careful digging commenced.

Sure enough, one little guy was found frantically pushing himself up through the sand, and after a giving him a bit of a breather, we monitored his progress down the beach and into the water, making sure all along that no predators had a go at him as he went.

Soon, another one made the same trip.

But, sadly, that was all. The rest of the nest yielded nothing but shells, some empty and possibly evidence of other survivors, but others obviously mutilated by crabs before they had a chance to turn from embryos to turtles.

We had a bit of a service for the turtles who didn't make it, as I thought it important that my children know the significance of a grave. (Seen here complete with mourner.)

The experience was a wonderful learning opportunity for Sam, in that he not only got to see babies make their way into the sea, he also saw how fragile this endangered species is and how few actually do make it that far. Not an easy lesson at four, but an important one about how the real world works.

"Finding Nemo" now has more context.