Hudson Valley Astrologer

“Sea turtles are the poets of the ocean.”

~ Anonymous

On a visit to the Outer Banks N.C., we happened to be strolling the beach taking in the sites when throngs of people began to gather. Not sure of the attraction we ambled over and peered over shoulders and in between bodies trying to get a better look. Long gullies were dug out in the sand from the top of the beach head all the way down to the surf, as if some ambitious beach dad had constructed a sand slide for his kiddos to run down. But this wasn’t a slide for kids, it was a protective gutter suggested by biologists overseeing a project for protecting the sea turtle. Volunteers wore lime green shirts with simple white lettering that said Turtle Patrol.

Nesting for sea turtles happens between May 15 and September 15 and hatching takes place anywhere between 45 to 70 days later, depending on conditions. Hatching events are called boils. It is a remarkable thing to witness and the biologists intervened because good intentioned bystanders use to “help” the hatchlings to the water to give them a boost in the hopes that they’d get off to a fast start on their journey. But nature set it up so that the long crawl from the beach head to the surf had a purpose. It wasn’t cruel. It was for building strength and stamina, so that the hatchling could make the swim out to the Gulf Stream which is a mile or two from shore. Without the strength and stamina developed from the difficult push through sand, the baby turtles never learned how to swim and ended up drowning if denied their obligatory sand crawl.

The big attraction drawing beach combers like a magnet to this particular spot was a nest that had “boiled” and now these adorable little sea turtles, each one the size of a small candy bar that could fit in the palm of your hand, instinctively headed for the water. “Surfs up!”

The “turtle patrol” was there to prevent onlookers from touching or otherwise obstructing the hatchlings progress. The “boil” and migration to the ocean was an amazing event and I was moved afterward when we went to Ben and Jerry’s for ice cream to enter my suggestion for an ice cream recipe into a sweepstakes the company was running.

Turtles are chocolate covered pecans dipped in caramel and were the creation of George DeMet from Canada in 1916. When I learned about “turtles” I knew right away that Turtle Patrol was the perfect entry for the contest. Caramel vanilla swirl ice cream with chocolate turtles seemed like a simple enough recipe and a clever name. So, with a request that all proceeds go to the preservation of these magnificent animals, I thought for sure I had a winner. But I heard nothing back from the company — “crickets!”

Year later and far up the coast in Providence, Rhode Island I entered another Ben and Jerry’s store and saw a flavor on the board that stopped me in my tracks: Turtle Soup. Yup! Caramel vanilla swirl ice cream with chocolate turtles! Good enough to make the board but apparently not good enough to win the sweepstakes.

I still think I had the winner. But if “Sea turtles are a reflection of the ocean’s soul,” then maybe winning the sweepstakes wasn’t the grand prize — maybe being a witness a witness to a “boil” was.

HVA

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