DIVE LOG Australasia

Guardians of Coral.

The beach that they are born from may not seem to hold much importance to you or me, but to a female turtle that beach is and will be everything. A turtle’s life is determined by temperature. The average temperature of a nest can range from 27 to 29 degrees Celsius and the embryos sex is determined by where they sit in the nest. Cooler sand that is deeper in the nest results in male hatchlings, hotter sand closer to the surface, females. After anything up to 70 days, it is time to start breaking out of the shell using a small, temporary tooth called the caruncle. This little tooth is attached to their snout and will fall off after hatching. The hatchlings can take anything from 3 to 7 days to dig their way out to the surface and will usually wait till

night to emerge fully. The life of a hatchling, especially a newborn, is a perilous one with predators seemingly coming from all directions and the beach is not the same, safer place that they may one day return to. Everything from crabs, lizards, birds, dogs and even pigs will take advantage of their soft shells and take them as a snack. It’s not just the live things that can cause issues though, even large rocks and driftwood can spell disaster for hatchlings, preventing them from getting to the water and dying of exhaustion before they reach the safety of the sea. Turtles have an overwhelming urge to head downhill once they have hatched, and luckily, this is stronger than their desire to go towards the light of the moon. Luckily, because despite hatching at night and

Gardeners of the Reef.

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DIVE LOG Australasia #408 - October ‘24