T&T....The last giants of Grande Riviere

Bathed in a soft red glow from the nearby lights, the guides patrol the one-kilometre stretch of sand. Their bodies cast long shadows in the dim light, their eyes searching the pounding surf for a head or two poking above the surface. Finally, a head pops up, then another.Driven purely by instinct, the female leatherbacks drag themselves on to the quartz sand, dig a hole using their back flippers, and deposit up to 100 eggs at a time— all under the protective eyes of the Grande Riviere Tour Guide Association (GRTGA).

By morning, hundreds would come on to the Grande Riviere Beach on Trinidad’s north coast to nest, a ritual that has taken place since dinosaurs roamed the earth. For six months of the year, every year, the mighty leatherback turtles make the trek back home to the very beach where they once hatched. There are over 700 beaches in 98 countries where leatherbacks nest.Already in existence for 27 years in its current form, the non-profit, community-based conservation organisation conducts ecotourism tours and manages the Grande Riviere Beach during turtle nesting season.

Already, over 4,000 visitors from more than 100 countries have descended on Grande Riviere, making this season quite a special one for both man and turtle.“In March, we had 1,025 turtles nesting. In April, we had 4,006. The total nesting event to date is 7,800 plus,” Peters told Guardian Media on Saturday.He added, “We had 343 turtles on the 6th of May. We haven’t had 300 in quite a long while. So, this season is special. We are getting numbers that we have not seen in a long while.”No one can say just why the turtles have come in such large numbers, although Peters has his own hypothesis—a banquet of sorts out at sea. He said, “It seems like turtles would have fed sufficiently during the three-year off-nesting period because in Florida, that’s another area where the North Atlantic population nests. They’re observing nesting increases as well.