Sleepless on the Beach – Red Lights, Giant Tracks & Satellite Tags 📡

Who needs sleep when you can do something truly meaningful instead? 

Last night took everything out of us, but we will definitely remember it as a highlight of our trip.

11:00 PM: Our beach patrol begins. This time, we are out with Akwasi, the owner of the ecolodge. Our shift is scheduled until 1:00 AM. But shortly after heading out, the red light of our headlights catches giant, fresh tracks. An Olive Ridley is making her way along the beach. Before she crawls back into the Atlantic, it's time for total focus! In a process that takes about two hours, we equip her with the first satellite transmitter.

Approx. 1:30 AM: Happy but exhausted, we fall into bed. We have barely drifted off to sleep when the phone rings: the next turtle is nesting—and right in front of the ecolodge's beach bar! So it’s time to snap out of sleep, throw on our shoes, and head back to the beach. We wait patiently until the majestic creature has finished laying her eggs, and then we equip the second turtle of the night with a tracker. The subsequent test is a total success—the data is streaming live! Another two hours have flown by.

Approx. 4:00 AM: Our eyes are burning, and stringing a clear thought together is a struggle. We are just creeping back toward our beds when the call comes: babies in the hatchery! New Olive Ridley hatchlings are breaking out! So, as this night comes to a close, we help seven tiny baby turtles get safely into the ocean.

Approx. 5:30 AM: We barely even know our own names by the time we finally crash into bed. But the feeling of experiencing the entire process, from egg-laying to hatching, in a single night is simply indescribable. We are now also incredibly close to our goal of equipping three Olive Ridleys with satellite transmitters during this trip to collect crucial migration data. 

Every single second of sleep deprivation was completely worth it!