The photographer, Elias Pereira, stated on Facebook that he and his mother were wandering along Grande Riviere Beach in Trinidad when they came upon the massive beast lost in a storm-created body of water.
At the river’s mouth, a mini-lake had formed, limiting access to the beach. He said that the female leatherback had just deposited her eggs and had totally turned around.
Pereira, a 17-year-old aspiring marine biologist, led the turtle back to the sea.
In an email to The Huffington Post, he said, “It felt amazing knowing I had given back something to the ocean that had filled me with so much wonder and admiration.”
Later that day, he met with a turtle environmentalist, who told him that if he hadn’t saved the leatherback, it would have died in the river.
The turtle is revered by cultures all across the world for its cultural importance. Because it is one of their five primary creators, the Seri people of Sonora, Mexico, consider the leatherback sea turtle to be culturally significant.
When a turtle is caught and put back into the wild, the Seri people hold celebrations and fiestas in honor of it. The Seri people have seen a significant reduction in turtle populations over time and have launched a conservation initiative to help. Grupo Tortuguero Comaac is a group made up of both teenagers and elders from the tribe. To assist control turtle numbers and safeguard the turtle’s natural environment, they employ both traditional ecological knowledge and Western technology.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classifies the species as Vulnerable. Leatherback sea turtles, according to National Geographic, are the world’s biggest sea turtles, reaching up to 7 feet long and weighing 2,000 pounds. They are in risk of extinction.
Guiding her out of the river
Trying to guide her out of the river and back into the ocean.
Watching her return to the sea
