Loggerhead Turtle Truths
By Maggie Schein, PhD
T
here is terror, determination, mysticism, wisdom, awe, beauty,
devotion and heroism in both what the turtle symbolizes and in our
relationship with them—for those of us here in the Low Country as
well as those in many other cultures.
Despite that heritage, we are, above all, the greatest threat to this complex and
important being. However, as groups like this one demonstrate, we have also
been found, late at night, crouching in the dark, knees ground down in the sand,
whispering to one another to make sure our flash-lights and phones are off, sending
one of our crew to the house that left its lights on to remind the home-owners that
the turtles follow the moon—and the moon only. Any artificial light will divert them
during their laying s eason. And we have been known to cup and count their precious
eggs, so many of whom will not be viable and whose tender babies will never make it
back to the ocean, with concentration as delicate and precise as a surgeon.
We are often guilty of fatal nets,
ignorance and cruelty, it’s true, but we
can also be seen demonstrating heroic
care so as not to disrupt the order of the
eggs, so as not to take away their heat, and
with absolute devotion to their delicate
ways and to the extraordinary efforts
their mother has made in her reverie
with the moon and the sand. Her armycrawl up the beach, our magnificent low
country beaches in this case, is no small
feat, and she does so almost as though
in a determined, impenetrable, trance.
And the little ones that make it from her
expertly dug nest, who were not disturbed,
who were not taken as prey, they scamper
to what they instinctively know as fast as they can in a fluttering hoard to be
welcomed by the tides. And those of us with sand-dented knees, tired eyes, hair
tangled by the salted wind, hands chaffed by plastic gloves that have been on all
night, and protective hearts, we cry in awe and delight in being.
In certain cultures, the turtle is the symbol of the Origin, of the Earth, of the
Heavens, of the wisdom of all three carried on their backs to us. That is no small
burden. That is no small gift.
And they always come home. To us, it is on our Low Country beaches. Let’s
make sure we do our part and help these majestic, magical, mysterious, and
delicate creatures continue to have a home to come to, and also let us have reason
to continue to wonder in awe at them, that they gift their continual returns to us. NK
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Naturally Kiawah