The Turtle Liberation Front

As the sun began to sink towards the horizon, changing the sky to brilliant golds, reds, and oranges, humans emerged on the black sand beach and pelicans began swooping along the waves of Monterrico’s Pacific coast. A cluster of tourists stood excitedly by the Tortugario, or turtle hatchery. Their voices rose and fell with the emotion when one of the workers finally appeared with a large plastic tub filled with what, from a distance, appeared to be two-inch pebbles. The worker marched down the steep beachfront and drew a line in the still damp sand. Behind him impressive 5 to 12 foot waves crashed dramatically against the volcanic beach. The tourists clustered behind the line, eager to hand over their vouchers and receive one of those mysterious moving pebbles. Each one exclaimed as a tiny, freshly-hatched sea turtle was placed in their palms.

The baby turtles looked terribly fragile in their saviors’ hands. Their small gray bodies blended perfectly with the volcanic sand of the beach. In the people’s hands they moved their tiny flippers, ready to be liberated into the great Pacific Ocean. The worker announced it was time to release the turtles and each person squatted and placed their precious turtles in front of the line drawn in the sand. The worker emptied the rest of the hundred or so turtles from the bucket and the mad race began.

Each of those tiny turtles was programmed to flipper their way to the sea. Slowly they inched their way down the steep beach towards the crashing waves. Their small flippers pushed them across the black sand towards the ocean. Yet with every slamming wave the little turtle bodies were tossed and twisted with the waves. Some of the turtles could strain their flipper muscles against the waves force and propel themselves to the safety of the ocean. Others were tossed further up the beach where they had to begin the arduous liberation process anew. Finally more and more of the turtles made it to the sea and only the stragglers were left behind. A little boy in red trunks hurried forward and reoriented the stragglers towards the sea. This independent member of the Turtle Liberation Front insured that the remaining turtles were washed into to the fierce ocean.

Finally all the tiny bodies had been washed out into the ocean to meet their coming fate. Perhaps some would be eaten by pelicans and other fish. Others might not survive their first hiatus into the Pacific. Only 5% of those recently hatched turtles would survive to adulthood. Those 5% would continue to propagate and save the turtle species… as long as they could avoid their largest threat, humans. The Turtle Liberation Front watched as night fell on the Pacific and wished their liberated turtles the strength and fortune to survive in the wild world.