Sea turtles have been swimming in the world's oceans for 65 million years, since the time
of the dinosaurs. It may be surprising that these animals could be endangered after existing
for so long on Earth, but it's true. There are only few places left where sea turtles
still thrive.
And this is one of those places. I've come all the way to Sipadan Island in Malaysia,
to explore one of the world's most incredible sea turtle sanctuaries. I'm Jonathan Bird
and welcome to my world!
Well, now we go.
We head out towards the reefs of Sipadan island. This island is so small that you can walk
all the way around it on the beach in an hour. Yet, it has a huge population of sea turtles.
I suit up for a dive to explore the reefs and hopefully find a few sea turtles.
Immediately I end up right in the middle of a huge school of jacks. Sipadan is known for
massive schools of fish.
As the school of jacks swims away, I spot my first sea turtle—a Green sea turtle swimming
over the reef. It wasn't hard because they're everywhere. Some are swimming around, while
others are napping on and in the reef. Sea turtles actually sleep underwater while holding
their breath. A sea turtle can easily hold its breath over an hour!
A few hundred feet away, I find a Hawksbill sea turtle munching on the reef.
She is plucking out tasty sponges and invertebrates that hide in the coral, rather than eat the
coral itself. It takes a tough stomach to digest this stuff.
That was incredible! I have never seen such big schools of fish anywhere, but the sea
turtles! Man, I must have seen 30 sea turtles on one dive. Amazing!
As we circle the island, I can see the tracks left in the sand by females that have climbed
the beach to lay their eggs.
It all starts when a male, identified by his long tail, catches up with a cooperative female
and courts her.
From the surface, I see the action and I prepare to film it.
JONATHAN: Here's the plan. I'm going to slip in quietly, grab the camera, and off
I go. And I need somebody to stand on the bow and just point at the turtles OK, just
so I can see where the heck they are.
As we approach closer I gear up to head in.
The mating has begun, and I quietly approach to film the action.
Mating is not easy for the female sea turtle. She must swim—and rise to breathe—for
both of them.
The male's long tail holds the female and fertilizes the eggs, while claws on his front
flippers give him the ability to grasp the female's shell.
The commotion doesn't go unnoticed by other males in the area. They flock to the mating
pair, which have drifted away from the reef.
In competition for a limited number of females, the other males look for ways to dislodge
the suitor. One challenger bites his flipper. When that doesn't work, he tries a blast of
air bubbles.
He tries sticking his head between the mating pair, hoping to wedge them apart.
Through it all, the mating male must hang on and tough it out. Fighting back would mean
losing his grip, and that's just what his rivals want.
Eventually, no less than four additional male turtles arrive to challenge the suitor.
They all try the same techniques and it is starting to wear him down. Meanwhile the female
is near exhaustion. The male is only struggling to hold on....the female is struggling to
survive.
Seeing this incredible struggle in person for the first time gives me a lot of respect
for sea turtles.
Hours later, the male has outlasted his rivals. He fertilizes the female's eggs and with luck
his genes will continue on.
As if her job weren't hard enough already, the female now faces another tremendous task--to
lay the eggs—but it must wait until nightfall.
After the sun sets, I head to the beach in total darkness.
I've come ashore at night, to see if I can find some nesting turtles. The females come
ashore and lay their eggs in the sand. But I have to be really quiet because if they
see me or they hear me they will take off right back into the ocean.
Using Infra-red night vision equipment, I have found a turtle hauling herself out of
the water, painstakingly clawing her way up the beach to high ground. Although sea turtles
live their entire lives in the ocean, they lay their eggs in a nest on the beach.
After the sea turtle reaches an area well above the high tide line, she begins to throw
sand around to create a pit.
I have to be very quiet because I'm sneaking up on a turtle that's nesting. They get
pretty nervous when they're nesting, because predators are everywhere.
She must stop frequently to catch her breath. Her crushing weight on land literally asphyxiates
her.
Whoa! This is a good place to be if you want to get covered in sand.
She begins to dig a hole about 3 feet deep with her rear flippers. The hole doesn't just
protect the eggs from predators. The sex of the baby turtles is a function of the incubation
temperature. A shallow nest baking in the sun will be too warm and all the babies will
be female. A deep one will be too cold and the babies will all be male. Digging to the
right depth insures a good mix of males and females.
She can't see what she is doing—the hole must be dug entirely be feel.
As she begins laying her eggs, we can gradually bring up some normal lighting. She is committed
to nest now.
At last she begins to lay as many as 100 squishy eggs about the size of ping pong balls into
the nest. In two months, these eggs will hatch and the baby sea turtles will emerge.
After she has finished laying her eggs, she carefully fills in the hole.
Then she cleverly disguises the exact location of the nest by flinging some sand around.
After two hours of effort, she plods her way laboriously back to the sea, completely exhausted.
For a sea turtle, 100 feet back to the water is like running a marathon. It requires enormous
effort. Her body is just not designed for travel on land.
She needs the weightlessness of the ocean to catch her breath and cool down.
Finally, she heads back to the reef for a well-deserved rest.
Two months later, newly hatched sea turtles race to the sea. Each baby turtle must rush
past a gauntlet of predators from land, sky and sea to reach the open ocean. Odds are,
only one of these baby sea turtles will survive.
On their journey, the sea turtles must fight their way through the surf, swim across the
shallows and then make their way to the open ocean, away from predators on the reef. They
won't return to their home on the reef until they are large enough to be safe—about the
size of a dinner plate.
It's a long and perilous journey but if this sea turtle survives, it may go on to
live over a hundred years.