Land of the Tiger (1997–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Unknown Seas - full transcript
Mysterious and unexplored
the seas that lap the shores of India
hide many a natural treasure
The boatyard at Veraval,
a piece of living history
This is a timeless scene
boats have been made here
on the northwest coast of India
for thousands of years
using the same methods
Seafaring is in the very blood
of these people
2000 years ago,
this area was already famous
as traders came in from the west
to buy gold and spices,
ivory and jewels, apes and peacocks
and even the occasional tiger
Wind and current carry those early
navigators down the Malabar coast
and round the southern tip of India
then north and east
to the Bay of Bengal and
the isles of the Andaman Sea
Let's follow in their paths
and ride the ocean currents
to these unknown seas
Early explorers came home
with fanciful tales of sea monsters
But giants of the deep still swim
in the waters of the Arabian Sea
This is the largest fish in the world
It can grow to 15 m
and weigh more than 18 tons,
that's as much as 6 elephants
Its mouth is wide enough
to swallow a man whole
but it actually feeds on some of
the tiniest creatures in the sea
The whale shark is a plankton-eater
As it cruises slowly below the surface
hundreds of gallons of water
pass into its mouth
and out through its gills
Every gulp sucks in
countless minute plants and animals
The whale shark grows huge
on this thin planktonic soup
From Veraval,
ocean currents sweeping south
bring us to the first
of our island landfalls, Lakshadweep
A chain of three dozen coral islands,
Lakshadweep lies some 300 km
off the coast of India
Most are so small,
you can walk around them
in less than an hour
Many of the islands are uninhabited
with their coral reefs
and turquoise lagoons,
their white sands
and palm fringed beaches
They look like classic treasure islands
But if you did bury treasure here
and try to find it some years later,
it would be nearly impossible
And you can see what is happening
the waves are washing the sand
on this part of the island
even the coconut palms
are toppling over
The ground has been washed away
from their roots
But on the other part of the island,
the sand has been piled up,
so the whole island
is gradually moving along
by over a meter a year
These are wandering islands,
some have moved so far
that ships wrecked on one side
have been buried and emerged
years later on the other side
But there is treasure here,
it's not gold and silver
but living jewels
and it's not on these islands
but in these sparkling waters
The coral reefs on the islands
are a treasure chest of vivid color
The corals that build these reefs
are living organisms
Like many of the creatures they shelter,
they rely on the currents
to bring them their food
The bright colors of coral reef fish
have a purpose
These powder blue surgeonfish
graze on algae
and they are highly territorial
Each pair has its own patch
Their body is a banner
that signals: Keep Out
This parrotfish hasn't got the message
On its own, it makes little impact
on the surgeonfish's algal garden
But there's another grazer
that can wreak havoc
A gang of Convict Tangs
invade the powder blue's territory
The powder blues dash back and forth
in an effort to drive them off
But the prison stripe marauders
overwhelm them by sheer weight of numbers
Within seconds the Tang strip the algae
from the powder blue's territory
Like a plague of locusts they move on,
to devastate someone else's garden
Where there are grazers,
you find hunters
For predators like bluefin jacks,
the reef is a paradise
of bite sized delights
With it,
shoals of hunters and hunted,
a coral reef is like
an underwater Serengeti
And even hunters can find themselves
on someone else's menu
White tipped reef sharks
are the cheetahs of these waters
We often think of sharks
as voracious killers,
but they can go for days
without eating
This one is just cruising,
not hunting
It glides through the water
like an aircraft
It can dive, climb,
bank and turn,
as well as any fighter plane
As we sink down the face of the reef
towards the deep
the scenery changes
to a forest of delicate sea fans
30 m down, the seabed levels out,
this is the realm of another hunter,
the sting ray,
it's well named.
A poisonous spine on its tail
can paralyse or even kill an enemy
but it doesn't use it for hunting
It digs up mollusks and crustaceans
and crushes them with its powerful jaws
And the bluefin jacks are back
shadowing the ray,
ready to pounce on
any shrimp or small fish
that it flushes out
Garden eels dance and sway
to the rhythm of the ocean current
With tails anchored,
they can vanish into the sand
if danger threatens
And danger forges strange alliances
These prawns share a home with gobies
The prawns are always shoveling sand
the gobies take advantage
of any food the prawns unearth
In return, the fish keep lookout
The prawns are almost blind,
but they keep in touch
with long antennae
Without their guardians,
they would be helpless
Garden eels feed on
tiny particles of plankton
carried in the current
Only the risk of
becoming someone else's dinner
will interrupt this sinuous dance
As the ray glides over the sand,
everything in her path
beats a hasty retreat
The danger passed,
the eels resume feeding
But the ray hasn't gone,
she seems to be waiting in ambush
Then something frightens her off
A reef shark
So long as it's resting here,
no other predator will come near
Lakshadweep islands
are islands of coconuts
For a few months a year,
people set up temporary camps
to harvest them
The palms provide food and drink,
even matting to build homes
The history of the people
is written in their faces
Arab and Indian features reflect
the homelands of the early adventurers,
who first arrived
on these islands of coral and coconut
There have been people here
for over a thousand years
But the islands
have more ancient inhabitants
Land crabs,
these specialized hermit crabs
are one of the few creatures
that have a home
on these wandering islands
The crabs are the island's
cleaning service
Towards evening, they head for the beach
to see what the tides have washed up
There's no knowing
what the sea will bring
a good meal like this,
may have to be fought for
Land crabs scavenge almost anything,
from dead fish to coconuts
The crabs' claws may seem ungainly
but they can eat
with surprising delicacy
Though they are well adapted
to life on land,
these crabs haven't quite broken
their link with the sea
They have to return
to the water to breed
As evening falls, and the light fades
fish that are active during the day
seek shelter among the corals
At night,
the reef is far more dangerous
Turtle and stingray take a final snack
But for the sharks,
the best is yet to come
As fish move, their muscles generate
tiny bursts of electricity
Incredibly,
sharks have a sixth electrical sense
For them,
the dark of the reef is dotted
with telltale pulses of energy
Moray eels are hunters too
During the day
they lurk in rocky crevices,
but at night, they slink out
to search the reef
Eel and shark
seem to tolerate one another
with barely controlled aggression
Another nightmare
for little fish, a grouper
It hunts by stealth
and swallows its prey whole
By sunrise,
fishermen are out on the lagoon,
For them,
this is the start of a long day
They are fishing for tuna,
but before they can catch them,
they must first catch something else
They find a shoal of fusiliers
Now the divers spread out a fine net
and with the help of weights,
they sink it to the seabed
They use fish paste to attract
these little fish into the net
With the baitfish onboard,
the boats leave lagoon
and head for the open sea
The fish are kept alive
in fresh and flooded compartments
Finding tuna can take days
but the signs are there
if you know what to look for
The plunging seabirds
are taking fish scared to
the surface by a shoal of tuna
Once the men have found a shoal,
they hurl the baitfish back
into the sea to attract the tuna
In the frenzy of feeding,
the tuna grab anything
whether it's baitfish or bare hook
As each tuna is heaved into the air,
it slips off the hook
Avoiding tangles
takes split second timing
and a lifetime's experience
In four and a half minutes,
they've caught 91 fish
South of Lakshadweep,
the ocean currents run fast
and they bring a feast of plankton
The reef's resident fish
are joined by more exotic visitors
from the open sea
Manta rays can grow huge
up to 6.5 m across the wings
To the seaman of old,
they were devil fish
monsters that leapt on boats
enfold sailors in their wings
and drag them down to a watery grave
But in fact,
they are harmless plankton eaters
like the whale shark
Mantas are usually solitary,
but exceptionally,
when ocean currents mix
to yield a glut of food,
they congregate in numbers
The currents that help
to bring the food for the mantas
carried early adventurers
round the southern tip of India
2000 years ago,
the Romans established trading posts
near present day Madras
The Romans are long gone,
but other visitors still flock
to this coast,
this is one of the few unspoiled
stretches on the east coast of India
The shallow waters of Pulicat
still attract birds of many kinds
Painted storks, egrets, ducks,
flamingos and pelicans
all flock here to feast
on the rich seafood cocktail
The pelicans aren't just here
to fish for themselves
When they are fully laden,
they take off and fly inland
for some 40 km
This is Nelapattu,
the largest pelicanry in southern Asia
Every year,
nearly 1500 pelicans arrive to breed
in this noisy, crowded colony
When the chicks are young,
their parents simply regurgitate
the fish they have brought
but the youngsters' beaks and appetites
grow at an enormous rate
Within weeks, the business becomes
a stomach churning battle
as the chicks dig even deeper
to get it for food
The chicks grow fast
After two months
they are fully feathered
Soon they will fly the nest
and the colony will fall silent
until the cycle begins all over again
On the next leg of our voyage,
we leave the pelicans and sail east
towards the sunrise
and the last of our island landfalls
This is a land
that time has passed by
Even today,
some of its people still resist contact
with the 20th century
1200 km from the east of mainland India
and far out into the Bay of Bengal
lie a mysterious chain
of over 300 islands
These are the tips
of a submerged mountain range
They are the Andamans and Nicobar
Some of these islands
are virtually unexplored
but the waters in between
are a sea of surprises
In mid afternoon,
the elephants take to the ocean
Mahouts guide them through the water
by pressing a foot behind the ears
These are working elephants,
sometimes they swim a km or more
between islands
This is a family group
If the youngster gets tired,
its mother and aunt
will be there to support it
The islands are still heavily forested
elephants are used to haul timber
which is ruthlessly exploited
Despite these alarming pressures,
the islands still embrace
some of the most pristine expanses
of rainforest in India
The islands were once
a part of southeast Asia
but they've been isolated
for 60 million years
During that time,
creatures have evolved here that
are found nowhere else in the world
Like the one that
made this great mound of sand
the Nicobar megapode
This extraordinary bird
incubates its eggs
in a most remarkable way
It buries them
in this gigantic compost heap
The heat of the sand
and the rotting vegetation
are sufficient to hatch them
and the bird can regulate the temperature
by adding or removing material
But the megapodes
are not alone in the forest
If they leave their mound unguarded,
the monitor lizard will move in
The monitor make short work
of the megapode's clutch
but that's not the end of the story
The lizard has one more trick
up its scaly sleeve
Cuckoo-like, it lays its own eggs
inside the mound
When the birds return,
they continue regulating
the temperature of the mound
But down below, it's not their eggs
that are incubating
The eggs hatch, into lizards
The scaly interlopers
dig their way out of the mound
much to the confusion of the birds
From the lush green
of these island forests,
we return to the unknown seas
The tropical waters of the Andaman sea
are perfect for coral growth
These must be among the most
colorful reefs in the world
Within this dazzling array of life,
there's constant competition
to populate every available space
All over the reef,
eggs are being laid and cared for
A triggerfish stands guard
over her eggs
fanning them to ensure a constant flow
of oxygenated water
A clown fish has eggs too
but in this case,
it's the male that cares for them
Every possible surface
seems smothered,
a twig of coral is coated
with damselfish eggs
This fish is also a male
He guards the eggs against predators
A pair of cuttlefish
perform a stately dance
The female is looking for
suitable crevices to lay her eggs
Her mate shadows her every move
If another male appears,
he chases it off
He must ensure that
only he fertilizes the eggs
The female forms her tentacles
into a tube
and inserts the eggs deep into the reef
She lays about 300 all together
The eggs have been carefully cemented
onto the walls of the crevice
They'll be safe in here
until they hatch
Out in the open sea,
turtles are courting too
There are stiff competition
between the males
Even when they are joined together,
other males may try to prize them apart
Turtles can hold their breath
for 5 hours,
but mating can go on for as long as 6,
so they have to come up for air
For 20 years or more,
these turtles will have roamed
the oceans of the world
Only now after mating,
will the female come ashore
for the first time in her adult life
With unerring accuracy,
she heads for the beach
where she was born all those years ago
a tiny spit of land
on the shores of the Bay of Bengal
This empty beach
on the east coast of India
is home to one of the most extraordinary
natural history events in the world
Seven weeks ago,
under the cover of darkness,
tens of thousands of female
olive ridley turtles
came ashore to lay their eggs
Some years,
over 600,000 emerge from the sea
to nest in this narrow stretch
of coastline
Now 50 days later,
under a full moon,
and half a metre under the ground,
the eggs hatch
Over the next few nights,
millions of baby turtles
will scamper out
and hurtle towards the sea
On some nights,
the flood of infant turtles
rushing seawards,
meets a new wave of adults,
lumbering up the beach
to lay their eggs
The new generation
are dwarfed by their elders
For some, this is a lethal encounter
But for every one
that's crushed or buried,
countless thousands survive
Heading for the gleam of moonlight
on the surf
the hatchlings march down the beach
When they reach the sea,
the infant turtles vanish into the waves
By morning, the beach is nearly empty,
a new generation of baby turtles
have started their great journey
into the unknown seas of India
They will voyage for 20 years
over thousands and thousands of km
before returning as adults
to nest once more at this very site
Whilst our journey has ended,
another great voyage is about to begin
the seas that lap the shores of India
hide many a natural treasure
The boatyard at Veraval,
a piece of living history
This is a timeless scene
boats have been made here
on the northwest coast of India
for thousands of years
using the same methods
Seafaring is in the very blood
of these people
2000 years ago,
this area was already famous
as traders came in from the west
to buy gold and spices,
ivory and jewels, apes and peacocks
and even the occasional tiger
Wind and current carry those early
navigators down the Malabar coast
and round the southern tip of India
then north and east
to the Bay of Bengal and
the isles of the Andaman Sea
Let's follow in their paths
and ride the ocean currents
to these unknown seas
Early explorers came home
with fanciful tales of sea monsters
But giants of the deep still swim
in the waters of the Arabian Sea
This is the largest fish in the world
It can grow to 15 m
and weigh more than 18 tons,
that's as much as 6 elephants
Its mouth is wide enough
to swallow a man whole
but it actually feeds on some of
the tiniest creatures in the sea
The whale shark is a plankton-eater
As it cruises slowly below the surface
hundreds of gallons of water
pass into its mouth
and out through its gills
Every gulp sucks in
countless minute plants and animals
The whale shark grows huge
on this thin planktonic soup
From Veraval,
ocean currents sweeping south
bring us to the first
of our island landfalls, Lakshadweep
A chain of three dozen coral islands,
Lakshadweep lies some 300 km
off the coast of India
Most are so small,
you can walk around them
in less than an hour
Many of the islands are uninhabited
with their coral reefs
and turquoise lagoons,
their white sands
and palm fringed beaches
They look like classic treasure islands
But if you did bury treasure here
and try to find it some years later,
it would be nearly impossible
And you can see what is happening
the waves are washing the sand
on this part of the island
even the coconut palms
are toppling over
The ground has been washed away
from their roots
But on the other part of the island,
the sand has been piled up,
so the whole island
is gradually moving along
by over a meter a year
These are wandering islands,
some have moved so far
that ships wrecked on one side
have been buried and emerged
years later on the other side
But there is treasure here,
it's not gold and silver
but living jewels
and it's not on these islands
but in these sparkling waters
The coral reefs on the islands
are a treasure chest of vivid color
The corals that build these reefs
are living organisms
Like many of the creatures they shelter,
they rely on the currents
to bring them their food
The bright colors of coral reef fish
have a purpose
These powder blue surgeonfish
graze on algae
and they are highly territorial
Each pair has its own patch
Their body is a banner
that signals: Keep Out
This parrotfish hasn't got the message
On its own, it makes little impact
on the surgeonfish's algal garden
But there's another grazer
that can wreak havoc
A gang of Convict Tangs
invade the powder blue's territory
The powder blues dash back and forth
in an effort to drive them off
But the prison stripe marauders
overwhelm them by sheer weight of numbers
Within seconds the Tang strip the algae
from the powder blue's territory
Like a plague of locusts they move on,
to devastate someone else's garden
Where there are grazers,
you find hunters
For predators like bluefin jacks,
the reef is a paradise
of bite sized delights
With it,
shoals of hunters and hunted,
a coral reef is like
an underwater Serengeti
And even hunters can find themselves
on someone else's menu
White tipped reef sharks
are the cheetahs of these waters
We often think of sharks
as voracious killers,
but they can go for days
without eating
This one is just cruising,
not hunting
It glides through the water
like an aircraft
It can dive, climb,
bank and turn,
as well as any fighter plane
As we sink down the face of the reef
towards the deep
the scenery changes
to a forest of delicate sea fans
30 m down, the seabed levels out,
this is the realm of another hunter,
the sting ray,
it's well named.
A poisonous spine on its tail
can paralyse or even kill an enemy
but it doesn't use it for hunting
It digs up mollusks and crustaceans
and crushes them with its powerful jaws
And the bluefin jacks are back
shadowing the ray,
ready to pounce on
any shrimp or small fish
that it flushes out
Garden eels dance and sway
to the rhythm of the ocean current
With tails anchored,
they can vanish into the sand
if danger threatens
And danger forges strange alliances
These prawns share a home with gobies
The prawns are always shoveling sand
the gobies take advantage
of any food the prawns unearth
In return, the fish keep lookout
The prawns are almost blind,
but they keep in touch
with long antennae
Without their guardians,
they would be helpless
Garden eels feed on
tiny particles of plankton
carried in the current
Only the risk of
becoming someone else's dinner
will interrupt this sinuous dance
As the ray glides over the sand,
everything in her path
beats a hasty retreat
The danger passed,
the eels resume feeding
But the ray hasn't gone,
she seems to be waiting in ambush
Then something frightens her off
A reef shark
So long as it's resting here,
no other predator will come near
Lakshadweep islands
are islands of coconuts
For a few months a year,
people set up temporary camps
to harvest them
The palms provide food and drink,
even matting to build homes
The history of the people
is written in their faces
Arab and Indian features reflect
the homelands of the early adventurers,
who first arrived
on these islands of coral and coconut
There have been people here
for over a thousand years
But the islands
have more ancient inhabitants
Land crabs,
these specialized hermit crabs
are one of the few creatures
that have a home
on these wandering islands
The crabs are the island's
cleaning service
Towards evening, they head for the beach
to see what the tides have washed up
There's no knowing
what the sea will bring
a good meal like this,
may have to be fought for
Land crabs scavenge almost anything,
from dead fish to coconuts
The crabs' claws may seem ungainly
but they can eat
with surprising delicacy
Though they are well adapted
to life on land,
these crabs haven't quite broken
their link with the sea
They have to return
to the water to breed
As evening falls, and the light fades
fish that are active during the day
seek shelter among the corals
At night,
the reef is far more dangerous
Turtle and stingray take a final snack
But for the sharks,
the best is yet to come
As fish move, their muscles generate
tiny bursts of electricity
Incredibly,
sharks have a sixth electrical sense
For them,
the dark of the reef is dotted
with telltale pulses of energy
Moray eels are hunters too
During the day
they lurk in rocky crevices,
but at night, they slink out
to search the reef
Eel and shark
seem to tolerate one another
with barely controlled aggression
Another nightmare
for little fish, a grouper
It hunts by stealth
and swallows its prey whole
By sunrise,
fishermen are out on the lagoon,
For them,
this is the start of a long day
They are fishing for tuna,
but before they can catch them,
they must first catch something else
They find a shoal of fusiliers
Now the divers spread out a fine net
and with the help of weights,
they sink it to the seabed
They use fish paste to attract
these little fish into the net
With the baitfish onboard,
the boats leave lagoon
and head for the open sea
The fish are kept alive
in fresh and flooded compartments
Finding tuna can take days
but the signs are there
if you know what to look for
The plunging seabirds
are taking fish scared to
the surface by a shoal of tuna
Once the men have found a shoal,
they hurl the baitfish back
into the sea to attract the tuna
In the frenzy of feeding,
the tuna grab anything
whether it's baitfish or bare hook
As each tuna is heaved into the air,
it slips off the hook
Avoiding tangles
takes split second timing
and a lifetime's experience
In four and a half minutes,
they've caught 91 fish
South of Lakshadweep,
the ocean currents run fast
and they bring a feast of plankton
The reef's resident fish
are joined by more exotic visitors
from the open sea
Manta rays can grow huge
up to 6.5 m across the wings
To the seaman of old,
they were devil fish
monsters that leapt on boats
enfold sailors in their wings
and drag them down to a watery grave
But in fact,
they are harmless plankton eaters
like the whale shark
Mantas are usually solitary,
but exceptionally,
when ocean currents mix
to yield a glut of food,
they congregate in numbers
The currents that help
to bring the food for the mantas
carried early adventurers
round the southern tip of India
2000 years ago,
the Romans established trading posts
near present day Madras
The Romans are long gone,
but other visitors still flock
to this coast,
this is one of the few unspoiled
stretches on the east coast of India
The shallow waters of Pulicat
still attract birds of many kinds
Painted storks, egrets, ducks,
flamingos and pelicans
all flock here to feast
on the rich seafood cocktail
The pelicans aren't just here
to fish for themselves
When they are fully laden,
they take off and fly inland
for some 40 km
This is Nelapattu,
the largest pelicanry in southern Asia
Every year,
nearly 1500 pelicans arrive to breed
in this noisy, crowded colony
When the chicks are young,
their parents simply regurgitate
the fish they have brought
but the youngsters' beaks and appetites
grow at an enormous rate
Within weeks, the business becomes
a stomach churning battle
as the chicks dig even deeper
to get it for food
The chicks grow fast
After two months
they are fully feathered
Soon they will fly the nest
and the colony will fall silent
until the cycle begins all over again
On the next leg of our voyage,
we leave the pelicans and sail east
towards the sunrise
and the last of our island landfalls
This is a land
that time has passed by
Even today,
some of its people still resist contact
with the 20th century
1200 km from the east of mainland India
and far out into the Bay of Bengal
lie a mysterious chain
of over 300 islands
These are the tips
of a submerged mountain range
They are the Andamans and Nicobar
Some of these islands
are virtually unexplored
but the waters in between
are a sea of surprises
In mid afternoon,
the elephants take to the ocean
Mahouts guide them through the water
by pressing a foot behind the ears
These are working elephants,
sometimes they swim a km or more
between islands
This is a family group
If the youngster gets tired,
its mother and aunt
will be there to support it
The islands are still heavily forested
elephants are used to haul timber
which is ruthlessly exploited
Despite these alarming pressures,
the islands still embrace
some of the most pristine expanses
of rainforest in India
The islands were once
a part of southeast Asia
but they've been isolated
for 60 million years
During that time,
creatures have evolved here that
are found nowhere else in the world
Like the one that
made this great mound of sand
the Nicobar megapode
This extraordinary bird
incubates its eggs
in a most remarkable way
It buries them
in this gigantic compost heap
The heat of the sand
and the rotting vegetation
are sufficient to hatch them
and the bird can regulate the temperature
by adding or removing material
But the megapodes
are not alone in the forest
If they leave their mound unguarded,
the monitor lizard will move in
The monitor make short work
of the megapode's clutch
but that's not the end of the story
The lizard has one more trick
up its scaly sleeve
Cuckoo-like, it lays its own eggs
inside the mound
When the birds return,
they continue regulating
the temperature of the mound
But down below, it's not their eggs
that are incubating
The eggs hatch, into lizards
The scaly interlopers
dig their way out of the mound
much to the confusion of the birds
From the lush green
of these island forests,
we return to the unknown seas
The tropical waters of the Andaman sea
are perfect for coral growth
These must be among the most
colorful reefs in the world
Within this dazzling array of life,
there's constant competition
to populate every available space
All over the reef,
eggs are being laid and cared for
A triggerfish stands guard
over her eggs
fanning them to ensure a constant flow
of oxygenated water
A clown fish has eggs too
but in this case,
it's the male that cares for them
Every possible surface
seems smothered,
a twig of coral is coated
with damselfish eggs
This fish is also a male
He guards the eggs against predators
A pair of cuttlefish
perform a stately dance
The female is looking for
suitable crevices to lay her eggs
Her mate shadows her every move
If another male appears,
he chases it off
He must ensure that
only he fertilizes the eggs
The female forms her tentacles
into a tube
and inserts the eggs deep into the reef
She lays about 300 all together
The eggs have been carefully cemented
onto the walls of the crevice
They'll be safe in here
until they hatch
Out in the open sea,
turtles are courting too
There are stiff competition
between the males
Even when they are joined together,
other males may try to prize them apart
Turtles can hold their breath
for 5 hours,
but mating can go on for as long as 6,
so they have to come up for air
For 20 years or more,
these turtles will have roamed
the oceans of the world
Only now after mating,
will the female come ashore
for the first time in her adult life
With unerring accuracy,
she heads for the beach
where she was born all those years ago
a tiny spit of land
on the shores of the Bay of Bengal
This empty beach
on the east coast of India
is home to one of the most extraordinary
natural history events in the world
Seven weeks ago,
under the cover of darkness,
tens of thousands of female
olive ridley turtles
came ashore to lay their eggs
Some years,
over 600,000 emerge from the sea
to nest in this narrow stretch
of coastline
Now 50 days later,
under a full moon,
and half a metre under the ground,
the eggs hatch
Over the next few nights,
millions of baby turtles
will scamper out
and hurtle towards the sea
On some nights,
the flood of infant turtles
rushing seawards,
meets a new wave of adults,
lumbering up the beach
to lay their eggs
The new generation
are dwarfed by their elders
For some, this is a lethal encounter
But for every one
that's crushed or buried,
countless thousands survive
Heading for the gleam of moonlight
on the surf
the hatchlings march down the beach
When they reach the sea,
the infant turtles vanish into the waves
By morning, the beach is nearly empty,
a new generation of baby turtles
have started their great journey
into the unknown seas of India
They will voyage for 20 years
over thousands and thousands of km
before returning as adults
to nest once more at this very site
Whilst our journey has ended,
another great voyage is about to begin