Sea Turtles—Part 1
Those of you who live near warm ocean waters no doubt enjoy swimming in them. But how would you like to swim as some of the sea turtles do? They take off from shore and swim a thousand miles away, remaining in the water for two or three years before returning. They have been doing this since they were created. Their ability to return to the exact spot from which they started two or three years earlier is truly amazing!
Although they breathe air, some sea turtles make long dives beneath the surface hunting for food—fish, shellfish, sea snails, seaweed, etc. Their bodies have been designed so that the salt contained in their food and in ocean water does them no harm.
What do they do when they need to rest and sleep away out there in the ocean? They just shut their eyes while floating on the surface and sleep as long as they like, bobbing up and down in the waves.
Turtles are not born in water; they hatch from eggs. The reason a mother turtle comes back to the starting point of her long trip is to lay a huge quantity of eggs. She usually returns in springtime to the exact spot her own mother and grandmothers came to years before. Some of these sandy shores are on tiny islands, just a speck in the great ocean. She doesn’t use a compass or map to show her how to get there either.
Crawling out of the water, usually at night, the mother turtle makes a slow and tiring trip over the dry sand. Reaching a spot far from waves even at high tide, she scoops out a large, rather deep hole, piling the sand behind it. Turning around, she lays 100 to 150 eggs a little larger than ping-pong balls. Then she promptly scoops the sand back over them until the spot is level, carefully scraping it so birds and animals won’t discover it.
Her eggs safely hidden, the mother turtle crawls back to the ocean on her flippers. Tears are dropping from her eyes—not because she is sad—but because the Creator has kindly arranged the tears to wash away grains of sand that cannot help but get into them when she is making the nest. The whole process has taken about an hour’s time.
The tropical sun warms the sand covering the nest. Within a few weeks the babies break out of their shells, crawl to the top of the sand, and head for the sea—not to return for two or three years. Actually only a few baby turtles reach the water. Many are eaten by birds and animals while they are out in the open.
In the following two articles we will look into some of the varieties of sea turtles and their individual ways of life.
ML 11/11/1990