In November 2001 an incredulous thing happened, a turtle turned up near my birding patch in the upper Firth of Forth, Central Scotland in november! A turtle in eastern scottish waters in late autumn was surely doomed & so a small 'rescue party' of divers & marine biologists was put together in an attempt to save the animal. Strangely what they found was a huge, fit & healthy Leatherback turtle that had no wish to be rescued and so the animal was left to its own devices, shortly following which (and before I got a chance to see it!) it left the Forth under its own steam (see the poor quality scanned newspaper image below). The whole incident seemed bizarre & it certainly left a lasting impression. A turtle that could survive in Scottish waters had to be something special and so began a strong desire to see one of these amazing beasts for myself.

Three years later in october 2004 I was on a family holiday in the Seville area of Spain. We took a trip into Donana on one of the large green 'dune-buses' which returned to the El Acebuche visitors centre along the beach east of Matalascanas. The bus stopped briefly to show us the carcase of a turtle which had washed up onto the beach. The body was decomposing but was quite clearly that of a Leatherback Turtle. The guide explained that with a diet mainly consisting of jellyfish they are prone to the accidental ingestion of plastic bags causing death through intestinal obstruction; this was apparently what was thought to have killed the Donana turtle. On returning home I tried to get some further information on Leatherbacks; there were some details available on the web however this was dominated by some very pessimistic population reports describing the catastrophic decline in Leatherback numbers with a worldwide population reduced to only 20-30,000 adult females in1996 from a population of around 115,000 in 1982 (i.e a massive decline of 78% in 14 years). Given their dramatic decline coupled with a huge natural range it was obvious that I would never be likely to see a living Leatherback in the flesh.

But in May 2006 whilst on a short holiday with my wife on the island of Trinidad we were given the opportunity to see nesting Leatherback Turtles on a breeding beach on the east coast of Trinidad. The whole experience was from beginning to end truly amazing & I feel honoured to have seen some of these amazing beasts in the flesh.