The Ancient Mariner

Waves at night

One of the oldest surviving reptiles seems ready for extinction. Having survived the worst of catastrophes, over the millennia, it meets its match in the human, who has devised ingenious ways to destroy all forms of ecosystems - land, air and water.
Already, only seven species out of 30 survive. The ancient mariner may become a 'Once upon a time' in no time.



Industrial fishing, which involves trawlers going to the deep sea and picking up fish right from the bottom of the ocean, also traps turtles and dolphins, snakes, and other non-fish animals. The turtles need to come up to breathe every one hour. But crushed under the weight of the fish they can't. Other non-fish creatures too get crushed to death.

Turtles on their walk home

Earlier the carcass was thrown back into the sea, but now they are ground and used as fertiliser apparently - an additional source of income, no doubt, for the fish trawler owners.

Though the government brought a law about the trawlers, which had to have a turtle hatch to let the turtle escape, apparently 5 % of the fish also escaped. This loss apparently is not acceptable. Lives can be lost, but not money, no!

Being guided by torch light

If that is not trouble enough, then the second challenge is the well-lit beach. No doubt they increase the safety of the nocturnal humans who just have to be out at unearthly hours. But the hatchlings of the Olive Ridley Turtles, programmed to go to the brighter horizon - the eastern one where the sea is - now go towards the road and get crushed and killed by the traffic, and the predatory dogs.

That's not going to change, is it?

The three who also gave up sleep one night among many

Apparently, only one in 1,000 turtle babies survive to adulthood. It maybe disappointing to know that man is not entirely responsible for this high mortality, and a few noble people also give up their sleep at night to parade the beach, relocate the eggs into a hatchery and then guide the baby turtles back to the sea to improve the chances of their survival.

They allow the public - within a reasonable number - also to join them in the walk that takes roughly 3-4 hours - to join them and create awareness about how we are affecting the ecology and what little we can do to harm it less.

I was part of it for the second time. The first time, I saw a nest and a dead turtle. This time, I was blessed to see the release of a few baby turtles into the Bay of Bengal. Even as they toddled guided by the light from the phones to indicate which side they had to move, the world seemed cruel and these tiny little infants helpless. They are on their own as the female leaves after laying the eggs and the male does not even come out to see them being laid or hatched or enter their world...

What can we do? We can only make sure that we consume less. What relationship does it have, you may well ask. Only one.

I remember the times when everything was available in limited quantities and so we consumed less. Now we are willing to pay to get what we want. This encourages people to exploit nature to sell more at the cost of the limited natural resources. If there is limited demand, they will be discouraged to do so.

The traditional fishermen, it seems, are more in tune with nature, fish within limits, only that which they need, during the season, and then give a break for the fish population to regenerate.

It all boils down to only one thing - consumption and exploitation. May our awareness increase.


My blogging journey began with a post about the Turtle Walk I had undertaken in February 2011: The Turtle Walk