While the jacks were nipping at my toes and the bait fish were making thousands of glittering flashes on the top of the water at sunrise I saw a big old sting ray in the shallows and immediately thought "I haven't been blogging near enough".
My to do list is something and if I start thinking about the things on it, I usually end up laughing over the absurdity. I got to check one of the items off though. I went scuba diving day before last and while we were moving away from the reef and heading back to shore, Texas started flipping things on top of the sand over to show me the underworld of the underworld. I saw spiky sea anemones, star fish, crabs and then he started flipping over conch to show me who lives in those fantastically fancy shells. I got to see their huge "foot" that they drag themselves along with. So serious. Anyway... You know how sometimes when you are looking at the big picture the finer details evade you until one day you really see everything? Up until now, when people made the look at that sign (not to be confused with the shark sign mind you) I more often than not wondered what the hell they were pointing at while peering intently in the pointed at direction. So frustrating. Well not any more folks! The veil has been lifted and the ocean floor finally showed me it's magnitude! Texas flipped over a couple of conchs and TAH DAH I saw nature at it's finest. All the normally brown/green blah bottom was suddenly teeming with life. I started checking under things as well and I came across a great shell. After making sure no one was using it for a home, I kept it. It's not super huge but it's a good size and it's very very pretty. It is now soaking in a bleach solution in hopes to make it all fancy shiny. When I showed everyone they asked if there was a conch in it and when I looked surprised and said I wouldn't take one with someone living in it, they looked surprised back and told me I could simply pull it out. Barbaric. I have eaten them and I know they taste alright (a little rubbery, it is a massive snail after all) but pulling them out of their home just to take it home seems so wrong in a super twisted it couldn't happen to you but what if it could way.
The evenings have been astoundingly beautiful and consisting of bike rides to nowhere in particular and long walks along the shore. Way I see it, with the scuba diving and the bike riding, in no time it should be possible to bounce a quarter off my ass. This is all paying off as it means once home I do not partake in my normal battle with sleep and end up simply falling on my face. So sleepy, so good. It's also paying off because night before last I went out to walk the shore with Jim, Tab and SD and about 20 minutes into it we came cross some Turtle Protector people who were helping some loggerhead hatchlings get to the waters edge! I got to see tiny turtles come out of the sand like the living dead and then awkwardly flap their way down the shore and into the water with the TP right behind them making sure everything went as planned. These people were seriously all business and red LED lighting. Why the red you ask? It's because regular lighting disorients the little ones and they don't know which way is the water and instead head for the glow of A1A. We have lighting regulations here from March to October that are simply not followed so the beach condos and street lights are the real issue at hand. Luckily the TP's are there to guide the way to freedom so the little dudes aren't all over main street. They let them do their thing and try to shield them from the light of the street and condos. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the little guys need to do the sandy trek to build up their strength for the oncoming swim but if they just don't get it, the TP will collect them up in a bucket, move further into darkness and then let them go one by one, cupping their hands over them so they can get it right. It was fantastic to watch. Of course I showed up and was immediately their worst nightmare with the dogs running along beside me and my camera hanging off my shoulder and my flashlight gripped in my fist. I got the super friendly yet super firm please watch where you and the dogs step, it would be better if they weren't here at all, no flash photography, don't touch anything, I'm a volunteer which makes me better and way more knowledgeable than you talking to while I ran back and forth looking at the tiny flapping loggerhead turtles. Of course I smiled and told them the flashlight was so I could easily pick up after the J&T and Jim is my cold hearted killer so he stays on the leash while Tab listens to everything I say and I'll only take video of the little dudes so there will be no flash, pinky swear. That seemed to slow him down a bit and besides, he had more pressing issues at hand. Like saving tiny lives from the crush of car tires and stupid flash bearing tourists. I am going to get myself a red LED light for my bike (mr officer sir said it's mandatory) and mark the dates of the remaining nests and then haunt them until I see some more turtles. It takes 45 - 55 days for them to hatch. I am all over this shit and going to the bike shop tomorrow to pick up my streaming LED red, white and blue valve caps so I'll get one of those red lights as well. Then once I have the video, I'll post it for the world to see. It's going to be so sweet. I would like to see some leatherbacks, but I'll take what nature gives me. Bitch better not hold out on me either... I'll start sleeping on the beach and set up TP trip wires if that's what it takes...
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