Good luck little one!

Over the last few days Tropical Storm Maria has been slowly but surely making her way towards the Leeward Islands. The only unknown is how strong she will be. So we took a ride down to the beach to get an idea of what it is looking like just before she hits.

On that front, the swell is coming up high – roughly 2 m higher than it has been – and vast amounts of fresh sargassum have made their way into the bay and are starting to get washed up.

Freshly arrived sargassum. © D. Tilley / JBHP

Walking past a nest that emerged in the early hours, we noticed a hatchling in the top of the nest. It was perfectly still and the initial thought was that it was dead.

On its way out. © D. Tilley / JBHP

So we picked him up and suddenly it started to frantically move its flippers. It was very much alive. We put it onto the sand and off it went, slowly at first but after a few steps, it started crawling very fast.

Avoiding the sargassum. © D. Tilley / JBHP

Avoiding the washed up bits of sargassum it made it to the water. The strong waves seemed to encourage it; with increased flipper rate it dived under the waves and came up the other side to get a breath of air, and off it went to start its ‘lost years’ life.

Good luck little one. ©D. Tilley / JBHP

Hatchlings face many threats, be it natural or anthropogenic; this one seems to have challenging weather to contend with for its first day out at sea.

Good luck little one...