October 15, 2017
This is a post about snorkeling with the sea turtle(s) that frequent La Jolla, together with the leopard sharks.
* Me + Turtle Forever *
No matter how much I may have dived, swam, and snorkeled La Jolla in the last bunch of years, I had never managed to spot the elusive sea turtle which make its home here… despite numerous reports from other divers.
That all changed a couple of weeks ago when I finally spotted this chill cutie!
That’s always the way, isn’t it? You give up looking for something and then it stumbles right into your view. Yes, I think that’s a Turtle Toot you’re looking at, below.
My luck has often been good in finding one of my favorite animals to watch – our local leopard sharks. They are fast and elusive and they won’t stick around long for any nonsense like petting or even good photography, so you’d better be ready to grab a shot fast when the opportunity presents itself.
Once I saw this turtle though, I only had eyes for him (her? I don’t know how to sex turtles.) It was just as relaxed as can be, chomping on red algae without a care in the world. We were both handling the surge in our own ways: the turtle, deftly angling its flippers to move against the surge where there was a particularly tasty algae patch it wanted to eat.
As for me, I didn’t have a weight belt (too lazy) so I would grab onto that strong and mighty sea grass (they call it Mermaid’s Hair) and try to ride out the surge like an underwater cowboy.
And before you accuse me of ripping up the oceans: know that this grass DOES NOT break free. That’s why I call it mighty. Pull on it all you like and you’re not going to make it break free unless it feels like breaking free.
I did observe that the turtle coexisted with the sharks without any issue, but if forced to answer whether or not they were actually friends, I would have to say No.
Thanks for looking! 🙂
