When turtles think you’re a turtle

While Waz is putting finishing touches to the camp, I’m long gone, in the 29 degree water and looking for my old mates Cookie, Blondie, Bully, Kermit and Shark Bait. Right on cue, Kermit rounds up on me and swims right into my camera. Obviously the Rottnest Quokka Selfie phenomenon blowing up has reached Ningaloo and the turtles want Insta cred. I felt I was being given a personal welcome, and I wasn’t wrong. I saw 14 turtles in the space of 30 minutes and they were loving the camera. What they don’t love is moronic snorkellers chasing them with Go Pros on sticks, and hence the answer to the question “How come you see so many?”. I’ve perfected the turtle drift, so much so they regularly swim up beside me and look at me expectantly.

There are only seven species of Sea turtle in the world, and Ningaloo/Nyinggulu host five; Most commonly the Green (endangered), Hawksbill (critically endangered), and Loggerhead (vulnerable), and occasionally the Leatherback (vulnerable) and Flatback (insufficient data), leaving only Kemp’s Ridley, and Olive Ridley, found mainly in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.

The Green Sea Turtle abounds in Osprey Bay and each year I see many of the same ones. Case in point, Cookie. So named because she is tough, and has been snacked on, probably by a Tiger Shark – turtles being their favourite food. I’m petrified of Tiger Sharks and the only bit of advice given to me by a boating local who told me that OF COURSE they are inside the reef was: “They eat turtles. Don’t swim like a turtle.”

Most mornings I head out for a bay reconnaissance after an early walk. If the tide is low, the walk gets shunted, and the only thing that would keep me out is if it’s high tide, blowing a gale and a massive swell to boot. Ok, well that wouldn’t actually put me off. More often than not I come back in unable to operate my fingers and looking like something the cat dragged in. Because I’m first out, I get to see all manner of species doing the stuff they do when no-one is looking, trying to touch them or chasing them. This includes all the skittish things like 3m cowtail rays and white tip reef sharks.

The first time I saw a black tip reef shark, we both levitated, then took off in opposite directions. My video kept running and documents me panting and effecting a record freestyle time as I swim to shore. Sitting in the shallows, a tiny 2cm Spanish Dancer swam up to my finger and sat on it. In 15 years, I have never seen another. My video of it is back in Adelaide so I will have to add that later. Point being, I probably see the most amazing things when I have stopped looking. Surely that’s a life lesson.

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