Turtle Laying Eggs in a Starry Night

I was over the moon when I was taking this shot. Feeling so lucky to be on the right spot at the right moment when a Green Sea Turtle in Oman coast, an endangered and protected species, crawled her massive body out on the beach, started to dig a nest with such a great effort that I could hear her taking deep breathes and continue digging again and again. She began to lay her eggs as the nest reached the satisfying depth. The coincidence of a starry night, dancing waves, the excitement of planktons and a mama turtle laying eggs in the same beach she once emerged, made it a magnificent scene to witness. I’m blessed.

All over the world, Sea Turtles are threatened mostly due to human activities. In some countries, adults and eggs are hunted for food, they are losing their feeding and nesting habitats all over their global range, they get stuck and die in fishing nets, and they suffer from seawater pollution directly and indirectly. Even if one gets lucky enough to pass through all these obstacles, reach maturity and get the chance to mate and lay her eggs, the survival of her offspring is no guarantee. Light pollution in nesting areas due to the deployment of artificial lights is one of the major threats for the sea turtle hatchlings. Baby turtles usually emerge from the nest in a group effort at night and orient themselves to the brightest horizon, which is naturally over the sea/ocean. Artificial lights simply disorient the little turtles, preventing them from making it to the ocean and eventually die of dehydration in the sun or be caught by predators. Besides these, there are lots of obstacles in the open ocean, as well. Sadly, due to all of the mentioned threats, only a few in 1000 hatchlings reach adulthood.