Hump Days at the Boatswain's Turtle Farm

On Wednesdays a group of us Mommas take our little fishies and head up to West Bay to the Boatswains Beach & Turtle Farm to watch the turtles swim, hold the little hatchlings, visit the sharks, and swim in the lagoon.

It makes for a great morning and the kids love it! So do the Moms!

With over 7 species of turtles, Boatswain's Beach has a turtle nesting ground for the adult turtles where they can lay their eggs, along with several tanks that house smaller turtles as young as weeks and even days old.

Within the adult pond there are turtles anywhere from 3 years old to the oldest being 105. These turtles can stay under the water for up to 12 hours but these ones seems to come up for air quite a bit (like the one below). Either that or they're looking for some food. We're careful that a tiny little Zed doesn't fall in.

These are little hatchlings anywhere from weeks old to months (but no older than a year). They're pretty tiny (about the size of a small CD carry case - bodies about the size of a CD itself). Obvioulsy, they are not allowed to be handled quite yet.

Here are some yearlings that are allowed to be handled.

Zeke's right in there, touching them and has even tried to kiss one! Although it did take a few visit before the comfort level increased. When you take them out of their environment they do tend to flap about! Once you pick them up you stroke them under the chin and it seems to calm them down.

These are our friends Suzanne and her girls Mary (3) and Elizabeth (9 months).

Mary and Zeke go in for a closer look at the yearling.

This is Jaspar and his Mom Tara. Jasper & Zeke are friends and hang about together quite a bit. Both boys are water rats or as Zeke would put it, "Me Sharkie, Umm Umm."

Their Mommys like to be in the water so it seems that whenever these fellas get together, it's always got something to do with a splash!

In fact, it was Tara's grandfather and father that started the turtle farm many years ago. We like this family....they have a real love for animals!

Predator Reef - Look Hard and You'll See the Sharks

On one of our outings I told Zeke that we were going to see the turtles and the sharkies.......he flipped out.......ran to his trunks drawer and pull out his sharkie trunks and proceeded to tell me the following:


"Sharkie go Umm..umm....Zekie sharkie.....Umm..Umm...Momma," as the top four front teeth came down and bit on the bottom ones (that means sharkies chomp their food and I'm a shark Mom so you better watch out!) So, of course we had to wear the sharkie shorts.

Zekie sportin' his sharkie shorts

Zeke gets really excited as we stand on the bridge and look at the reef below. And when we travel down the path toward the Sharkie glass lookout, he completely goes nuts!

Zeke keeps his face pasted to the glass and when a shark strolls by, he screams, "Sharkie simming, Sharkie go Umm...umm!" (But you already knew that didn't you?)

The Lagoon....Where Our Little Fishies go Swimming........It's an awesome, rather large fresh water pool for our little Nemos.





If you're curious about Boatswains Beach, please see their website below:

http://www.boatswainsbeach.ky/

We can share beaches and ocean with sea turtles but it requires commitment and effort on our part. We can make certain that future generations will have the opportunity to know these unusual animals.

The late Dr. Archie Carr, a scientist and author who almost singlehandedly began to turn the tide on the extinction of sea turtles, summed it up when he wrote, "For most of the wild things on earth the future must depend upon the conscience of mankind."

Our planet has come to an unprecedented point in its history where the actions of one species--man--will determine the fate of life on earth.

It is not too late to ensure a future for sea turtles.