TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin EARLY MAY: Two Auspicious Events on Orient Beach

On the morning of March 12th, as I was working out on our hill at Mont Vernon overlooking Orient Beach... there was a new, large sand hump on the beach (Pic attached ) with several gendarmes cautiously surrounding.

Being a guy who reads crime dramas... “OMG..... BODIES buried in the sand.....YOIKES!!!!!”

The hump was about 20 feet long with the gendarmes replaced by blue-uniformed officers (Police Territoriale) keeping all observers at arms’ length. Finally, one man measuring the hump, its distance from the water and then surrounding the hump with caution tape.

NOT bodies: EGGS...LA TORTUE …. a sea turtle had landed and laid her eggs which, we were informed, were protected and would hatch in 50-60 days (“two moons”). There is a group of registered volunteers who would supervise the site.

Later, we were informed of a similar landing the night before near La Playa & a second nest.

SO .. .April 30th is the 48th day! It’s almost time!

Back in Canada, we have seen several reportings of sea turtles laying nests on the Caribbean and North American beaches, apparently a rarity over the past several years.

I wish we could be there to witness such an auspicious event!


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Thanks for the post and the pictures. Good luck to those little fellas when they hatch! Hopefully there won't be anyone around to both them when they hatch. I have heard several stories of areas where nature has enjoyed a distinct LACK of human contact, like in our national parks.

Neat. Thanks for posting that.

Cool story. From past visits to Mexico and the Quintana Roo state we have encountered many restricted sections of coast reserved for nesting sea turtles in the Tulum area. Included in this group were the leatherback turtles and the loggerhead turtles. Increases in fertilization on the land and plastics discarded in the seas present real dangers to these creatures, both young and old. Hopefully, our 'SXM turtles' will do well and have a good hatch. Of course, once COVID-19 comes to an end the turtles may have to nest elsewhere when the crowd return to Orient Beach.

Thank you.

We were in Barbados with friends one year. The nesting turtles are very protected there and they mark out the nests so people will stay away. We were walking from the bar to our room one night and my husband looked down and spotted the littlest, tiniest baby turtle struggling his way in the sand headed to the beach. As we looked around we saw dozens of the little creatures making their way to the sea!! We called some locals who came over and dug a little trail in the sand to assist their travels. It was quite cool and amazing!!

Very cool. First Ive heard of turtles nesting at Orient. Certainly havent heard of any in the Yellow Umbrella portion where used to tractor.

Did see many on the Florida Atlantic Coast.

And as the boss said, good luck getting out into the ocean and making it too big turtle.

Years ago, back in the infancy of the original Karakter Beach Bar, there was a roped off area in the sandy area between the Boon and Karakter due to at least one (and perhaps more?) nest of turtle eggs in the sand. We weren’t there long enough to know if the hatchlings survived and made it into the sea but we always hoped they did. Jorritt was very protective of the nest and from what we saw, he kept a close eye on it as best he could.

pat--that reminds me of one time we were staying at Beachside Villas, when Marvlyn came by our unit at like 2 AM and got us up, to go watch a mother turtle heading back to the sea after laying her eggs. While I wasn't originally too excited about getting up at that hour, it was fascinating to watch her head back to the sea, on a lovely full moon night.

Thanks Carol,
As a sidebar, we we're in the Galapagos, during Irma, and got to swim with the incredible, gentle-giants, the Leather-backs ... but also got to meet the Tortoises ... especially in a neo-natal-to-recovery institution with tortoises from neo to 190 years old!

Will add some pics here!

There are a whole lot of people working to keep the turtles safe here. Headed by the Nature Foundation they have volunteer spotters to find the nests which are then marked and
monitored.

Cool pictures! Thanks!

Thank you for posting!

Late one afternoon in February of 2016 I was still on the beach after my wife returned to our studio at Club O, I noticed some commotion on the beach in front of waterfront chalet #48. I went to see what was happening and saw baby turtles digging out of the sand and making their way to the ocean! I ran to our studio to get my wife, knowing she would absolutely love to see the hatching turtles. All of us that were there stood on each side of the turtles making their way to the ocean. Just us being there kept the birds from swooping in and grabbing any of the babies. It is something we’ll both remember forever!

Trying to figure out how to post pictures of the baby turtles-dinner time I’ll try again later.

We we’re at Club O, so I couldn’t take a wider angle picture without including people.

Looks like it worked. Bravo.

Cool! Thanks for the pics.