The Turtles of Ras al Jinz

On the easternmost tip of the Arabian Peninsula, where the Gulf of Oman meets the Arabian Sea, lies one of the most important nesting sites for green turtles in the Indian Ocean. Each night, particularly between June and September, female turtles drag themselves up the sand at Ras al Jinz to dig a nest and lay around a hundred eggs.

What makes this journey remarkable is its precision. A female turtle usually returns to the same beach where she herself hatched, perhaps thirty years earlier, after travelling thousands of kilometres across the ocean. Scientists still debate exactly how turtles navigate, although many believe they sense the Earth's magnetic field.

The survival of each hatchling, however, is far from certain. The temperature of the sand decides whether eggs become males or females, and warmer beaches produce more females. As global temperatures rise, researchers worry that some populations may become unbalanced. On top of this, hatchlings use the brightness of the horizon to find the sea, so artificial lights from buildings or cars can lead them in the wrong direction.

Oman has responded by turning Ras al Jinz into a protected reserve. Visitors are welcome, but only in small, guided groups, and flash photography is forbidden. Some tourists complain that the rules are too strict. Yet it is precisely these limits that allow people to witness the nesting at all; without them, the turtles might stop coming.

Protecting the turtles, then, is not a matter of keeping people away, but of teaching them how to behave. A child who watches a tiny hatchling race towards the waves in silence may become the adult who protects the ocean tomorrow.