Story Six: Rescue

In November, when the waters were a bit warmer than they had been, Carl decided to go snorkeling. He would often scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef, and he never tired of the diversity of life he saw there. His favorite dive was a night dive beneath a full moon. The night was so bright that Carl could see almost everything with only a small torch in the dark water. There were white-tip reef sharks everywhere. A hawksbill sea turtle swam up to Carl and his mates. The turtle swam in circles around the group and stayed with them for nearly twenty minutes. The hawksbill was just as curious about Carl and his friends as they were about him.

Instead of diving, today Carl chose to snorkel in the shallower waters near the shore. It was sea turtle nesting season, and he hoped to see a few during the day before they made their journey up the beach at night. If he was lucky, he would see very large female green turtles.

Carl and his best mate James put on their stinger suits after lunch and walked down the beach to the edge of the water, looking for turtle tracks as they went. They put on their fins, masks, and snorkels at the edge of the water, and entered the ocean backwards so they would not trip.

The water still had some bite to it, but the pair snorkeled in the early afternoon despite the chill. They saw several sharks, plenty of fish, and many bottom-dwelling sea cucumbers and sea stars. They didn’t see many sea turtles until they began to swim closer to shore as the sun began to sink in the western sky. There were several large green sea turtles, swimming leisurely through the water, calmly coming to the top of the water to take a breath of air.

Carl and James watched the turtles they found until they swam away. They did not wish to disturb them, so they did not follow them. Carl was very adamant about not disturbing the sea life. He never touched anything he encountered. He would simply watch it, take a picture, and be on his way. When James was with him, he made sure that James did the same.

The pair took several pictures of the turtles they found with the underwater camera that Carl invested in shortly after he got his SCUBA diving license. They stayed with the turtles for so long that there was no longer enough light to take good photos under the water. When the sun had only an hour left in the sky, Carl called to James and the two began to swim toward shore.

Near the beach, Carl snorkeled past a turtle at the surface of the water. The turtle wasn’t swimming, just floating still. Looking closer, Carl saw that the turtle’s front right fin was cut open, and her shell had clearly been damaged. “Oy!” Carl called to James, after raising his head above the water and taking his snorkel out of his mouth. “There’s an injured turtle over here!”

James swam over to have a look. “Is it still alive?” James asked.

“I think she is,” Carl said. “She just must be very tired.”

“What should we do?”

“Go up to the beach and find my mobile phone,” Carl said. “There’s a number for the North Queensland Turtle Hospital there. Call them and tell them where we are. I’ll stay with the turtle.” Carl put his snorkel back on and put his face back in the water while James swam to shore.

The North Queensland Turtle Hospital was attached to the Coral Ocean Aquarium. Carl had their number because of the many dive trips he had been on. He had never rescued a turtle before, but he knew the problems that faced the species. Most of the problems were caused by humans.

From the water, Carl watched James reach the shore, take off his fins, and run up the beach. The turtle didn’t try to move away from him. James ran back into the water, doing dolphin dives and then swimming Tarzan-style until he reached Carl.

“Craig’s on his way,” James said.

“Good,” Carl said.

The two watched the turtle floating, occasionally swimming slowly across the surface, her wounded flipper limp at her side. They continued to watch her in the fading afternoon light. For the most part, she was motionless. “It’s like she has her own personality,” James said, in awe of the calm bravery of the wounded turtle.

Soon, Craig arrived. Craig was the director of the sea turtle hospital. He brought a volunteer, Delaney, with him. “Oy! We’ve got her over here!” Carl shouted, waving his arm at the top of the beach where the two stood.

Together, the group carried the sea turtle out of the water and onto a rescue stretcher specifically designed for carrying turtles. They carefully and laboriously carried the stretcher to Craig’s pick-up truck and put the great green turtle in the padded tray in the back.

“Thanks for the call, mate,” Craig said, shaking James’ hand and then Carl’s. “We’ll fix this girl up and she’ll be right soon enough.”

Craig and Delaney got back into the pick-up and headed toward the aquarium and turtle hospital. Carl and James peeled off their wet and salty stinger suits, gathered their snorkeling gear, and began to walk home, saddened by the injured turtle but happy that they had done something to help.