My parents know a beach where you can usually find sea turtles. They’ve been countless times and are rarely disappointed. It’s off the beaten path, and as you approach the beach, there’s a long run-down pier. The beach itself is very narrow at high tide, but long to walk. You can see large dark patches in the water, which is the turtle grass that green sea turtles eat. My parents usually look from the shore, but since we had the children, snorkel gear, and the underwater cameras, we decided to try to get a little closer to the turtles.

We walked along the beach and at first, we didn’t see anything. Disappointed, we considered leaving, but decided to walk farther instead. And then… we saw a dark spot moving along the coast: a turtle!

Seven children shrieked with excitement and splashed into the water, and the turtle zipped away. We changed tactics and split up, separating the stealthy children from the overly-enthusiastic yellers and splashers.

Soon we saw dozens of turtles, all swimming within a few feet of shore, and all of the children saw them from the shore. My mom was beyond excited to share this with her grandchildren!

A storm had passed through the night before and another was rolling in, so the water was churned up with debris and a bit opaque— not the usual crystal clear water. You really couldn’t see very far underwater, and the turtles were extremely wary, but… I entered the water with Jack (8) at a point where we didn’t see any turtles. We floated and stayed as still as possible, and the turtles swam right towards us. I was able to repeat this process with Maria (7), so both children swam with wild turtles! It was so exciting!

We probably saw over fifty turtles! After each older child saw one in the water, we all exited the water and continued spotting them from shore. We wanted to give the turtles some space and respect their feeding and swimming space. It was a truly incredible experience!

I want to add that this was nothing like swimming with turtles in Mexico. When we did this, our charter made a big deal about how they didn’t feed the turtles, but the unmarked boat that just happened to be right next to us was feeding them, and those turtles were very accustomed to people, even letting me touch them. The turtles in Eleuthera were wild and very skittish, making this a much more authentic and exhilarating experience.

If you want to see our last turtle video, here it is!