THE CAR JACK DIDN’T WORK.
A metal pole would have been useless and brawn simply would not have been enough.
It was time to seek outside help.
All the while the turtle lay pinned and trapped beneath the granite boulders on Hilton Beach before the anxious gazes of concerned locals and visitors.
This was the situation that played out at Graves End Beach last Sunday.
And the heroes today are Bridgetown Fire Service officers 198 Harewood, 295 Turton, 311 Griffith and 337 Forde, as well as bystander Michael Alkins, who prevailed when others did not.
“Actually this is the first time we called in the Fire Service to help us,” field director of the Barbados Sea Turtle Project, Dr Darren Browne, explained to Heather-Lynn’s Habitat.
“The last time we had a turtle stuck in that way we had to, I think, ended up commandeering some pole that was from somebody’s old volleyball court and prising the rocks up. I don’t even think that would have worked in this case,” he said of that incident which took place at the Richard Haynes Boardwalk.
“Pieter [Westendorp – one of two volunteers who responded] even destroyed the jack from the car trying to prise up the boulders. So that is the first time we used the Fire Service and they had to use the Jaws of Life.”
The turtle was wedged securely under the granite boulders on Graves End Beach.
The drama played out from the time Barbados Sea Turtle Project volunteers Westendorp and Teresa Ennamorato rushed to the area near the National Conservation Commission’s lifeguard hut at Graves End Beach after receiving a call just before 8 a.m.
Browne explained the nesting female was on her way back to the sea when, clambering over the groyne, she fell between a number of the granite boulders and became wedged tight.
Her plight was noticed by a group of locals and visitors who were on the beach. It was not clear whether the turtle had fallen in the Saturday night.
The Sea Turtle Project volunteers explained they assessed the situation and tried to free her.
“But (we) quickly realised that despite our effort to try and dislodge her and create more room, she was truly wedged between rocks that surrounded her on all sides except above her,” one said.
All the while the volunteers tried to keep the turtle cool with wet towels and buckets of water to prevent her suffering from hyperthermia, which could lead to death if she was exposed to the sun for prolonged periods.
A visitor was dispatched to the hotel for something to use as a lever, while Pieter tried to use the car’s jack to lift the boulders to create some more room. The lever didn’t work and the car jack is no longer in use.
At 9:15 a.m., just over an hour after the drama started, the team from the Bridgetown Fire Station responded.
Armed with the Jaws of Life, a generator and other pieces of equipment, it took the officers several tries before they were able to lift the boulders – each of which could weigh between three and ten tonnes.
But the turtle had had enough.
“When the Fire Service got the boulders off the turtle and the volunteers tried to take her measurement, she got agitated, so they allowed her to go back in the water,” Browne explained.
The drama ended at 10:28 a.m. and she returned to her watery home with just a few scrapes on her shell. (HLE)
