Olive Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea)
Average length: 2.5 feet

Rahul Alvares

Eighteen years ago, at two in the morning, my dad and I were walking along the dark deserted beach of Morjim. We had enlisted the help of Jonny—a local boy from the village— and were patrolling the shoreline for sea turtles. 

At the time most Goans weren’t even aware that sea turtles nested on our beaches. Dad and I weren’t sure ourselves until a few months earlier when we had met Jonny in Morjim. We were returning along the coastal road after photographing the beach for some of Dad’s environment work, and it suddenly struck him from memories that this beach was once renowned as a turtle nesting site. We stopped the first person on the virtually deserted road and he confirmed for us that yes indeed, the turtles were still nesting here. And yes their eggs were being poached and eaten at the local bars.

Then came the crucial question to the young man: “Do you think these turtles should be protected or should we continue eating their eggs?” It was an honest and non-judgmental question asked by my dad and the young man pondered over it for a moment before he said, “Yes, I think we should try to save them.”
That comment from the young man marked the beginning of the turtle nesting project in Morjim and the many others that would eventually be set up in other parts of Goa. That early morning, he was our guide to finding nesting turtles on Morjim beach, and he remained in touch with us to become our most informative and reliable source for Morjim.

Sea turtles are one of the strange wonders of nature. They come from eggs laid in the sand. Yet they spend their entire lives swimming in the sea traveling thousands of kilometers across oceans swimming from one continent to another. Once they leave their nests on land as hatchlings none of the male babies will ever come back to it. The females will return to it some thirty odd years later and thence year after year to lay up to a hundred and fifty eggs on the very same beach from where they first hatched. Some scientific theories suggest that sea turtles have the ability to detect the earth’s magnetic fields and use them the to navigate their way back. But how they find their way across thousands of kilometers of open ocean to the very same beach where they first hatched is still largely a mystery. 

Sea turtles were originally known to nest on other Goan beaches including Calangute and Baga too but have stopped for sometime now thanks to all the crowds of people frequenting them. Now they only seem to nest on Morjim, Agonda, Galgibag and a few other beaches. Even on Galgibag and Morjim the total number of turtles visiting amount to only about 15-20 a year – almost  an insignificant figure when compared with the 1-5 lakh that nest yearly on the Gahirmatha beach of Orissa! This beach on the east coast of India is the largest turtle nesting site in the world.

The nesting in Goa, just like in Orissa, takes place between the months of November to May. On full moon nights, female turtles climb onto the beach to dig holes in the sand and lay ping pong ball-sized eggs in them. A full moon night is chosen since it draws water to the highest high tide level ensuring that the female turtle has a short walk up the beach and that her eggs will remain safe from soaking on any other high tides.

A strange feature of turtle eggs is that their sex is influenced by temperatures. For instance, temperatures at or below 28 degrees celsius produce only males, while those above 30 degrees celcius all hatch into females. Not entirely surprisingly, temperaures between 29-30 degrees celcius produce a mixed sex clutch.  
The eggs hatch between 45-70 days (depending on weather conditions) and the babies remain buried in the nest for a further 4-6 days. Eventually they scramble out under the cover of darkness and make straight for the sea. On the way they are picked up by birds, dogs and crabs and even when they reach the sea, sharks and other fishes will take a heavy toll on their numbers. It isn’t uncommon for an entire batch of eggs to succumb to predators and natural calamities. But in the end all it requires is for just two of the offspring out of the thousands of eggs laid by the mother in her lifetime to make it to maturity, to ensure the survival of her species.

Despite the slaughter from predators, turtles have successfully survived for at least a hundred millions years, outliving dinosaurs who perished sixty five million years ago. 
But what evolution has not seemed to prepare them for is a unusual and rapidly changing environment caused by civilization.

Lighting represents one of the biggest problems. Turtles will not tolerate any disturbance on their nesting sites, and should a visiting female merely chance upon just a flashlight shone in her direction she will not come onto land to lay her eggs. This holds true while she is climbing up the beach as well. The only time a turtle will not bother about a flash light and noise is once she has begun laying her eggs. Nothing will stop her from finishing then!

Lighting can cause problems for hatchlings as well. Baby turtles locate the sea at night by its shiny surface reflecting light from the stars and the moon. This inbuilt instinct of theirs works against them when there are lights on the beach. Hatchlings seeking out the brighter land side are known to crawl in the opposite direction often ending up exhausted and dead on roads and in houses nearby.

 At Morjim more and more beach shacks are being constructed as a result of the recent popularity of the beach. More shacks mean more disorienting lights and more stray dogs that will harass every turtle coming up to nest and attack the hatchlings going back to the sea.

If we are to ensure the continuation of olive ridley turtles visiting Goa we simply must regulate the shacks operating in this area. Only a certain number of shacks must be allowed to operate and in certain areas under regulations, ensure that their lights don’t affect anything beyond the area allocated to them.
Enforcing the necessary regulations would not only give the olive ridleys the space and safety they need to continue breeding but also ensure that both present and future generations visiting this beach will continue to have the opportunity to observe, study, and delight in one of Goa’s most mysterious and marvelous species.