Injured Hawkbill Hatchling

Mike's first days... mark the open wound on his head and arms

On the night of 4th July, my dive instructor was patrolling around his island to check on a turtle nest that he secured 2 months ago. It was predicted that it will hatch on that very night. No sign... so we started digging, anxious if there were any survived.  After a bit of digging, we found 4 baby turtles, alive... 1 quite healthy, 2 injured, and 1 terribly weak.
We released the healthy one straight to the sea. The weak one died soon after. and the 2 injured one was kept in a container of shallow water. But one of them died the day after.

Only 1 left, we named him... 小强 -Xiao Qiang (The Tough/Strong One) or Michael.
I didn't name him, it was the guests and my instructor naming him. We don't actually know his gender.

When I brought him home to the town, we carried a full container of sea water, so we can change it everyday. Mike was terribly weak, when we found him, his left arm was injured, he cannot move it at all. He got some cuts on his neck and left arm. We didn't even sure if he will survive the next day.

But, he really was a tough one. I force-fed him with turtle food from petshop. I need to make sure he eat something. And it works. He get stronger, and starting to nibble on some seaweed/sponge that I brought. At least he has an appetite for the sponge.

Mike's weight (gr) on 4th July vs. 10th July 2015

Be strong, Little Mike. Hope to swim together with you :)
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20th July 2015
Couldn't manage to get this writing posted before I left for Festive escape...
Before I left, I passed Mike to my instructor care. He took care until this morning... he released Mike free into the wild. We didn't want Mike to be human-dependent for too long, he need to learn about the sea.
Mike was much healthier, both arms in well condition, and he swam fast...
I wasn't there to witness, and there was no video taken
I am kinda broken-hearted, not able to bid farewell to the little one
I just hope one day we will cross path again

Baby Hawksbill Sea Turtles Hatching

I haven't been diving for months, been so busy...
Last week, I did again. Gosh, how much I miss touching the water
This time, I didn't puke. Hehehe...

That day, I was supposed to leave, but I am really grateful that we decided to stay for 1 more night.
Thanks to my instructor to allow it too...
That night, we found out baby green turtles were hatching...

So, what happened is that... in the islands, every now and then, there will be turtles' making nests there. None ever succeed to hatching stage. The island was inhabited by monitor lizards, who happened to favor turtle eggs too (apart from human, I guess)

2 months ago, my instructor - Mr.B, found a few nests on the island, and he removed the nest site to somewhere nearer to resort's security's hut. Monitor lizards and humans won't come close to the area. Making it safe for the eggs. Certain measures were taken to ensure successful incubation.
So on that night, 15 babies walked out of the nest. we waited for more to come out, then we realized... none were coming out, we started to dig the nest to find more babies are struggling to come out of the nest. Rain made the sands a bit packed, making hard to penetrate.
We had extra 65 healthy babies, and 2 still born.
We release them to the sea in the middle of the night. We took a night dive to capture their first journey. It was so beautiful and serene.
I don't know how many of them survived that night, I hope some of them will reach adulthood. Life in nature can be really harsh. Some baby sharks were already waiting by the shores.

What we can do now is to protect more nest, more eggs, and hoping more and more babies will be released to the sea. And may I see them again on my next dive.

Here are some of the video... we weren't prepared, thus the poor quality. But it's the moment that counts!