Turtle Watching in Grenada

We just had a memory making evening. The girls took a minivan to the north end of Grenada to watch leatherback turtles nest. We were accompanied by a guide down to Levera Beach, a favourite nesting spot of the leatherbacks.

The leatherback turtle is the largest of the sea turtle family, measuring up to 6 feet long and weighing up to 2000 lbs. They are said to travel up to 10,000 miles each year in search of food, mates and in their quest to return and lay their eggs at the very same beach they were born. Only one of every 1,000 hatchlings actually reaches maturity!

After laying their eggs, the mother spends hours camouflaging the nests. Approximately 50-70 days later the eggs will begin to hatch. Not only were we fortunate enough to witness four mother turtles digging their nests and laying their eggs, but we also saw hatchlings making their way to the shoreline! We returned to the boat after 1am exhausted and exhilarated.

Unfortunately, we were only able to capture a few photos of the event as we were, understandably, restricted to the use of red light so as not to distract the turtles. The first two are from the turtle watching website and the latter is from our evening.