Pawikan Turtle Laying Eggs on Dahican Beach Davao Oriental

Pawikan Turtle laying eggs on Dahican Beach Davao Oriental:

Pawikan Turtle laying eggs on Dahican Beach Davao Oriental: We had the awesome privilege to witness a giant Pawikan turtle laying her eggs late one evening on the shores of Dahican Beach, Mati Davao Oriental. Lit only with torches we captured some footage of this amazing moment. She laid 128 eggs in total! We are working with the local government and the Amihan Boys lead by George Plaza who are in charge of conservation and protection of the bay in which these turtles lay their eggs.  The turtles return has been a recent occurrence and only after many years of conservation efforts in the bay. The Amihan Boys have created nursery pens on the beach where the eggs are re-planted into the ground in a protected zone to ensure highest rates of hatching and thereby aiding with the survival rates which currently stands for around 1% survival of hatchlings.

On this particular occasion, the turtle had chosen to lay her eggs in a volleyball court and therefore once she had finished and gone back to sea, we helped with the re-location of her eggs to the predesigned nursery pen to ensure the highest rates of survival for her hatchlings.  Rather than place all the eggs in one hole, George Plaza relocates them in batches of 30 to increase their rate of survival.  Turtles are integral in the regeneration of the coral reefs and biodiversity of the waters and their increased numbers greatly impact the regeneration of the bay.

Witnessing this beautiful moment was such a privilege especially as it was on the last night of our 1 week stay in Mati.

Photography: Pawikan Turtle laying eggs on Dahican Beach Davao Oriental:

All video footage was captured using the Nikon D5100 with the 35mm f1.8 lens. ISO was locked at 1600 to ensure the best low light performance balanced with lowest possible noise.  I have found that capturing video past iso1600 on the Nikon D5100 starts to show a lot of noise.  To increase the difficulty of capturing the moment, it was in the middle of the night and were solely reliant on torchlights! However, just being able to witness this moment and capture it in a reasonable manner to be able to share it was satisfying enough.  The still image to open the video was taken with the Nikon D700 armed with the nikon 50mm f1.8, shot at f2.8 and cranked up to iso6400! The D700’s ability to shoot in low light never ceases to amaze me.