“Happy is he that hath the God . . . which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is.”
Psalm 146:56
Those of you who live near warm ocean waters enjoy swimming in the ocean. But how would you like to swim as far as some of the sea turtles swim? 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 they started from 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 and seaweed. The Creator designed their bodies so that the salt contained in their food and in ocean water does them no harm.
How do they rest and sleep out there in the ocean? They just close their eyes while floating on the surface and sleep as long as they like, bobbing in the waves.
Turtles are not born in water; they hatch from eggs. The reason a female turtle comes back to the starting point of her long trip is to lay a huge quantity of eggs. She usually returns in spring to the exact spot her own mother and grandmother came to years before. Some of these sandy shores are on tiny islands, just a speck in the great ocean.
Crawling out of the water at night, the female turtle makes a slow, tiring trip over the dry sand to a spot far from incoming waves, even at high tide. She scoops out a large, deep hole, piling the sand behind it. Then she deposits 100 to 150 Ping-Pong-ball-sized eggs into the hole. She promptly scoops the sand back over them until the spot is level, carefully scraping it so birds and animals won’t discover the nest.
With her eggs safely hidden, the mother turtle works her way back to the ocean on her flippers. Tears are running from her eyes - not because she is sad - but because the Creator has kindly arranged the tears to wash away grains of sand that get into them when she is digging the nest or covering it over. The whole process has taken about an hour.
The tropical sun warms the sand covering the nest. Within a few weeks, the babies break out of their shells, crawl to the surface 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 safely. Many are eaten by birds and animals while they are out in the open.
In the following two articles, we will look at some of the varieties of sea turtles and their individual ways of life.
(to be continued)
ML-02/08/2004