Culebra Leatherbacks

Editorial Introduction. — This section is devoted to poetry involving turtles, representing either reprinted previously published or new unpublished material. We encourage our readers to submit poetry or songs for consideration, either their own material or work by other authors. Poems may be submitted to Anders G.J. Rhodin at Chelonian Research Foundation [RhodinCRF@aol.com].

Our desire is to share with our readers the beauty and wonder of turtles as expressed through the art of the poem or song. In the sense that the relationship between man and turtles is multifaceted, so too is turtle poetry. The poems we publish here will reflect that complexity, from poems of pure admiration for the creatures themselves to others reflecting the utilization of turtles and their products. Some poems will reflect man's use of the turtle for sustenance, others will stress man's need to preserve and protect turtles. Some will deal with our emotional interactions with turtles, others will treat turtles light-heartedly or with seeming disrespect, but all will hopefully help us to better understand both the human and the chelonian condition, and remind us that the turtle holds a sacred place in all our hearts.

Chelonian Conservation and Biology, 2007, 6(1): 159

Culebra Leatherbacks

Anders G.J. Rhodin ¹

Down from the hills

down to the shore

by moonlight we descended

on the coast of Culebra

to reach Playa Brava

Silvery crescent arching

glowing, stretching below us

a narrow white sliver

beckoning in the night

We stepped onto the beach

and felt transported in time—

to an Age before Man

no evidence of his presence

save our prints in the sand

Full moon rose above

with Mars and companions

riding through the night

reflecting and glittering

the sand glowing light

Boldly we stepped

strode down the beach

Rolando and Molly

Carol and me

Our quest in the night

nesting turtles to find

arriving in darkness

reflecting moonlight

Emerging from breakers

surveying the shore

hauling their bulk

from out of the sea

Leatherbacks emerging

black bodies heaving

flippers thrusting

progress halting

Slowly onto sand

wary of disturbance

nest sites to find

follow ancient urges

replenish their kind

Rituals of nesting

slow dances defined

sensed deep in the soul

of the leatherback's mind

Body pit, egg chamber,

oviposition,

covering, camouflaging,

steps in her ritual

danced in the sand

Brine from salt glands

wells from her eyes

mixes with sand

like tears for her kind

Head covered in sand

held still for my touch

sand brushed away

with the palm of my hand

Her role that night

to help us understand

her travels, her life

her fate in the seas

A transmitter to be tracked

by satellites in space

attached to her back

with surgical care

Beacon in place

she crawls down the beach

returns to the sea

and the lives of her kind

their lives, their future,

their fate and survival—

held in our hands

to cherish and care.

Editorial Comment. — I wrote this poem after my first visit to the leatherback nesting beach at Playa Brava on Culebra, Puerto Rico. The beach there was stunning, with no visible lights from human development. It was primeval and magical, and we were surrounded by several leatherbacks nesting. We used novel orthopedic bone attachment techniques for application of satellite transmitters to nesting leatherbacks, techniques that we have continued to modify and improve over the years. Our research and conservation efforts over the last several years on Culebra and in Fajardo have involved cooperative efforts between our team (led by Molly Lutcavage and including at various times Sam Sadove, Charlie Blaney, myself, Carol Conroy, Russ Andrews, Yonat Swimmer, Kelly Stewart, Michael Rhodin, and Jeanette Wyneken) and our enthusiastic Puerto Rican turtle conservation hosts and research collaborators (Hector Horta, Carlos Diez, Rolando Soler, Jovino Marquez-Soto, and others). The island of Culebra and its friendly people and magical beauty has won its way into our hearts and it is our fervent hope that the isolated and near-pristine leatherback nesting beaches there and in Fajardo and Puerto Rico's Northeast Ecological Corridor will receive the on-going and improved protected status that they so richly deserve.