Looking for the giant

There are currently four different seaturtle species in Thailand. We have encountered three of them and yesterday we had an opportunity to see the forth one, namely the biggest; the giant leatherback turtle which can grow up to 2.5 meters. There are only four nesting females left in the whole of Thailand so it would have been a very special occasion to see the turtle!

Local researchers had spotted a nesting female at the northernmost beach of Phuket, Mai Khao, on the 10th January when it laid 86 eggs. The leatherback lays its eggs in a ten day's cycle with an average of seven egg laying times so we were expecting the turtle to come back.
We headed off to Mai Khao at 11 p.m. in order to be there at around midnight. We had two hours before the high tide would hit its maximum, at 2 a.m. when the chances to spot the turtle would be the highest. Apart from us, there were also six local marine biologists and a couple of fishermen and Thai families waiting for the turtle to arrive.

The beach of Mai Khao spans about 8 km so we split up in teams and started patrolling the beach. There were no lights on the beach and we had to avoid using torches since turtles are disturbed by lights. Luckily, the stars and moon were lighting up the clear night so the shoreline was still visible.  

Our expectations were high when the time started approaching 2 a.m. and a couple of times we even thought we saw the giant crawling up from the sea... We walked along the beach with the eyes of hawks, enjoying the clear sky and the sounds of the waves. However, as time passed, the tide started to come down and thereby the chances to see the big giant. Tens of fishing boats could be seen in the horizon so let’s hope that the turtle didn’t get caught by any of those. We don’t know what happened to the turtle, but it never came to nest. 

We drove away from the beach at about 4 a.m, tired and a bit disappointed. We were also thinking about what would have happened if the turtle had actually shown up. There were around twenty people on the beach hoping to see the turtle to take pictures and touch it and to be quite honest, we weren’t much better ourselves. The sad truth is that there are no peaceful beaches left in Phuket where the turtle could nest which probably explains why they have disappeared from the area.

 Anu turtle patrolling...