A Green Sea Turtle’s Tale

I can feel movement around me, but I am confined to a tiny room of some sort. I feel a need to break out of this “tough and rubbery”1 space, as it is now too small for me. I emerge to find my 107 siblings¹, some already free of their shells, others still working on it. We are buried in the sand and as more of us squirm around, the sand falls down, raising us up higher. This is a slow process. We get tired and have to rest for long amounts of time, but for some reason we know we must get out together if we want to survive. After several days of struggling to break out of the sand, we are almost free. The top of the sand is hot, too hot to go out right now; we must wait on the brink of freedom for it to cool. While we wait, I memorize the scents and tastes of this place, our first home, and I know that one day I will be back.¹

Now it is dark and as a group, we make a mad dash for the water. There is no one there to protect us, but so many creatures coming at us. It is terrifying and dangerous. I just know that I need to keep moving toward the water, which my instincts are telling me must be towards the brightest horizon¹. As I start to tire, a gull carries off my brother beside me, and, in the distance, I see a crab attacking another of my siblings2. I must keep going. Finally, I reach the water and the waves help to carry me into the ocean.

The journey of my birth is not done yet. Now that I am in the water, I must go into a “swimming frenzy,”2 swimming constantly for the next day straight until I am “far away from the birds, crabs, and reef fish”³ that would like to eat me. I will spend the next few years of my life out here in the vastness of the ocean, until I grow large enough to join others of my kind in the reefs. I will eat macroplankton and whatever else I can find. Out here, I am safe-I am lost to the world.³

Six years later. Now, I am much larger. It is time for me to join the other turtles in the shallower, coastal water. There are lots of peculiar things in these waters; strange creatures. The turtles here have bizarre stuff on them that they call algae and barnacles. They say these things will grow on me someday. It is fun here with the other turtles. I have made friends with them and we play during the day, chasing each other around. There is also different food here. Since the water is not as deep, I can swim near the ocean floor, where the most delicious grass grows! Those nasty little grubs are officially not the main course anymore.³

My first day here, some creature swam towards me; it was not a fish, maybe some sort of mutant starfish? It was larger than me and had bubbles blowing out of its shortest tentacle. The other turtles tell me this is a human. I was not sure how to react to this creature, so I swam away and watched from a distance. The others say to be cautious of these creatures, that they can be dangerous; that they use peculiar tools that can hurt us and some of them would like to eat us.³ I have seen other turtles get caught in what they call fish nets, unable to get out and reach the surface for air, they drown. It is very sad. There are also strange machines that I am told the humans drive with whirling blades, which are so dangerous they can cut through our shells.²

There is much to learn in these new waters.

I have always been attracted to green sea turtles, even though I have never seen one in person. Like most people, I loved Crush and his son, Squirt, in the move “Finding Nemo.” I also enjoyed the environmentally focused story of Sammy, from the movie “A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures.” Granted, animated movies, although very entertaining, are not always the most accurate depictions of animal behavior. However, animation was not my only experience with green sea turtles. Throughout the years, I have caught several tidbits of documentaries discussing sea turtles, the great adventure of the hatchlings, and the beautiful reefs that they call home. That being said, my knowledge of green sea turtles was extremely incomplete. By investigating my freshly discovered spirit animal, I found many parallels between their development and that of humans, which I believe aided in my attempts to learn from these majestic animals.

Green sea turtles lead a very interesting life, full of many changes and mysteries. As I draw closer to experiencing great changes in my life upon my graduation from the University of Texas, I can draw inspiration and guidance from the actions of the green sea turtle.

One of the first similarities I identified between the changes that green sea turtles undergo and one that I am approaching, is that “they migrate long distances between feeding grounds and the beaches from where they hatched”4. As I am searching for a job for after I graduate, I am realizing that I too will need to travel long distances from the place I was born to the place where I will be able to sustain myself. Having spent my entire life in Texas and having my whole family in Texas, it is initially frightening to see that the types of jobs I would like are in places like Minneapolis, Portland, and Cincinnati. These places are not only significantly distant, but their climates are also drastically different. However, finding out that a tiny turtle hatchling, who is only a couple days old, rushes out into the open ocean on its own overcoming so many dangers, has led me to gain new perspective. If an almost two inch long hatchling5 can so bravely leave its birthplace, why should I be afraid?

Another lesson that I learned from the green sea turtle involves my dietary practices. I have always been an omnivore, although the cruelty of the meat industry combined with the increased health consequences associated with the steroids and various other chemicals used by factory farms has made me consider trying to be a vegetarian. However, I feel that at this point in my life, I am still too drawn to meat to truly be successful in such an endeavor. Sometimes, this makes me feel very guilty because I am aware of how horrible the meat industry is, but I still eat it. Green sea turtles start their lives as omnivores, eating invertebrates, “like crabs, jellyfish, and sponges”² and “captives raised from the hatchling stage prefer chopped fish and trout chow to algae and marine grasses, at least until they are over 3 years old”⁵. But, “unlike most sea turtles, adult green turtles are herbivorous, feeding on sea grasses and algae”². This discovery helps me accept that maybe vegetarianism is not right for me at this point in my life, but that it is okay because it does not mean that it never will be. There is hope, that like the green sea turtle, one day I too will be able to give up eating meat.

Green sea turtles are very interesting in that there is still a lot of mystery surrounding them. For starters, after their initial swim out into the ocean when they are born, no one is quite sure where they go, what they do, or how long it is. This period of time is referred to as the “Lost Years” and is estimated to last four to six years. This mystery is the reason behind the six-year jump in my story of the green sea turtle at the beginning of the paper.³ Another mystery is just how green sea turtles find their way back to the beach that they were born at to lay their eggs. Some scientists hypothesize that green sea turtles use sense of smell as a guide or even possess an increased sensitivity to the earth’s magnetic field, but no one truly knows for sure.6 The many questions surrounding green sea turtles help me realize just how little we truly know about the world and how much mystery there is out there. In a world that keeps getting smaller and smaller with technology, these mysteries help remind me that there is so much more to the world than just us.

My spirit animal is brave and mysterious. It grows and develops, much like us. Discovering my spirit animal helped me to unlock new courage and a sense of adventure, attain acceptance of myself and hope for a progressive future, and recognize the vastness of the world we live in and the mysteries it still holds.

Word Count without Quotes: 1427

Word Count with Quotes: 1503

Image Citations:

1. Green Sea Turtle Hatchling: http://worldwildlife.org/species/green-turtle

2. Hatchlings Reach Water: http://projectorion-2010.blogspot.com/2010/07/pictures-baby-gulf-turtles-released.html

3. Green Sea Turtle Swimming: http://worldwildlife.org/species/green-turtle

4. A Turtle’s Tale Movie Poster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sammy%27s_Adventures.jpg

5. Crush from Finding Nemo: http://staff.gps.edu/pala/WebDesign/Laura/Exam/newdisney.htm

[1] Peter Bennett and Ursula Keuper-Bennett, The Book of Honu: Enjoying and Learning about Hawai’i’s Sea Turtles, (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008), 51, 54-58.

Book found in UT’s Life Science Library. Provided information on green sea turtle hatchlings, behavior, and life stages.

2 “Green Sea Turtle,” National Geographic, accessed September 20, 2012, http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/green-turtle/

Provided information on threats to green sea turtles.

3 Bennett, 59-61. The “lost” years and juvenile stage.

4 “Green Turtle,” World Wildlife Fund, accessed September 16, 2012, http://worldwildlife.org/species/green-turtle

Provided a short overview about green sea turtles, information on the threats they experience, and their function.

5 Carol Ruckdeschel and C. Robert Shoop, Sea Turtles of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States, (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2006), 90, 93.

Book found in UT’s Life Science Library. Provided information on green sea turtle hatchlings.

6 Bennett, 44-45. Navigation to the natal beach.