In a viral video from Ras Al Hadd, a sea turtle is trying to make its way across the sand. A blonde woman sits on its shell. A man appears to straddle it as though it were a horse. I kept watching the turtle. Every bit of ground it covered seemed hard won.
Perhaps the people involved thought it was a funny holiday moment. Perhaps they simply did not think at all. Either way, the animal was trying to get on with its life while people turned that effort into entertainment. Oman’s Environment Authority has since said it is taking legal action over the footage and has reminded visitors not to touch, approach or disturb turtles at nesting sites.
Anyone coming to see Oman’s turtles should know what this country has done to protect them. A royal decree established the Turtle Reserve in 1996. Oman’s Nature Reserves and Wildlife Conservation Law followed in 2003, while its environmental protection law lists sea turtles among protected wildlife. Those are the legal foundations; on the beach, the instruction is much simpler. Give a turtle room. Let it move, nest and return to the sea without making yourself part of the scene.
A turtle on land is easy to mistake for a sturdy creature because of its shell. Watch one long enough and you see something else: the slow pull of its body, the effort of each flipper in the sand. A visitor sitting on it adds weight and stops it doing what it came ashore to do. We cannot tell from a video whether this turtle was injured. We can tell it should have been left alone.
There are already enough hazards waiting for sea turtles. In Oman, conservation workers deal with abandoned fishing gear, artificial light, beach disturbance and changes to the coastline. Volunteers and officials monitor nesting beaches, clear waste and help stranded adults and hatchlings. Much of that work happens when the visitors have gone home.
I can imagine someone saying that Oman has plenty of turtles, so what difference could one foolish encounter make? Multiply that thought by thousands of visitors. Soon, a nesting beach becomes a place where every animal has to make its way through somebody else’s photograph.
The authorities can set rules and patrol the shore. The rest of us have a part that requires no training at all. If we travel to see something remarkable, we should allow it to remain itself. Some things are held sacred through custom or faith. A turtle’s passage between the sea and the sand deserves that same quiet respect.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
