At 5:30 Skippy started to slowly scoop away the sand ... and just a few minutes later a little turtle appeared. He had barely picked it up when another one appeared.. and then another ... one right after the other. He carefully handed each one to his assistant and she placed it in a bucket that contained wet sand. Every so often he would measure the depth of the hole, and scoop out some sand and put it in the plastic bag that Cheryl held open.
There were a few that were still in their cracked shell so they were set aside to wiggle out on their own. Most of them just came crawling up out of the hole on their own. After about a half hour or so they were all out. The shells were dug up and put in bags. The baby turtles were counted ... 80 in all!
We waited until it was almost dark and the turtles were taken down close to the water. There was one crab that tried to snatch a baby but someone was right there to take care of that.... and there were several big birds circling around but they were outnumbered by us humans. We all watched as the baby turtles scrambled towards the ocean ... and a loud applause was made as the last little one disappeared ...
It was truly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I've lived on Maui for 22 years and I have never experienced anything like this. It was incredible!!!
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