Winter2016AlertDiver

icture this: a leatherback sea turtle,

a quintessentially pelagic animal,

casually swimming in a jungle

river in Trinidad. That’s right, a

leatherback in crystal-clear fresh

water with tropical foliage in the

background. A freak occurrence?

Absolutely. But there it was gliding

in front of us, three well-travelled, experienced — and

speechless — photographers.

There was no time to waste. This precious opportunity

could end at any second, so I went to work, slowly

approaching the turtle from the side, careful not to

chase or alarm it. When the water got too shallow, I

kicked off my fins, tossed my mask aside and walked

next to the turtle, shooting from the hip. I was grateful

to have a fisheye lens, a huge glass dome and fresh

batteries that kept my temperamental strobes happy

and firing. Luckily, a rocky bottom — similar to a trout

stream’s — kept the water mostly free of debris. My two

friends and I took turns, synchronizing our efforts and

miraculously staying out of each other’s way.

The current washed the sand and salt mucus from

the turtle’s eyes and revealed an animal of extraordinary

beauty. Not your typical black leatherback, this turtle

was a very pale, bluish gray with a constellation of little

white stars covering her body. Every 30 feet or so, the

turtle lifted her massive head out of the water to breathe

the warm humid air and kept going, soaking in her new

surroundings. Roughly a half mile from the sea, this

living dinosaur finally realized she was in a very strange

neighborhood and turned around, eventually making it

back to the mouth of the river and swimming into the

murky and angry Caribbean.

TRINIDAD’S LEATHERBACKS

Text and photos by Michael Patrick O’Neill

A female leatherback nests in

the middle of the night on a

remote beach in Trinidad.