Best place to find Turtles?

[gtjason2000]

What can I say my wife loves turtles. What dive site has the best liklihood of seeing turtles and if possible multiple turtles? Also what time of year, I imagine you might be able to see a lot of turtles when they swim back to lay eggs on the beach.

[Osprey]

What kind of turtles (if any) are your wife's favorites? Depending, you can probably google that turtle's species, it'll probably tell you when and where they nest and migrate through.

If you decide by nest, since they lay eggs in the evening, you can probably go out in the morning/afternoon off shore and watch them come and go, as long as you follow the rules that specific beach has about how close you can get to the mother turtles (I am not sure how this works internationally, any help?)

I think at SOME point they even allowed some people to come and view the turtles laying their eggs at night (with a specialist), but I am not sure WHERE that was, or if it's even still legal since it makes egg poaching extremely easy.

[scubasavvy]

My friends were just in Hawaii and said that they were all over the place. They would swim right up to the snorkelers, which was pretty cool. I agree with Osprey though, Google it before you do much of anything else...

[georoc01]

I've seen a turtle on viturally every dive in Cozumel and in the dive we did in Roatan.

And if I remember correctly, there is a turtle sanctuary and research facility in Grand Caymans where they let you go out on Turtle searches. If you find an untagged one, you get to name it.

[Osprey]

That's so cool!

[Travelnsj]

Originally Posted by gtjason2000

What can I say my wife loves turtles. What dive site has the best liklihood of seeing turtles and if possible multiple turtles? Also what time of year, I imagine you might be able to see a lot of turtles when they swim back to lay eggs on the beach.

Two places I have been to. Heron Island and Sipadan. Both places you can see them lay eggs and dive with them.

[ScubaToys Larry]

Actually, in Cayman it's the "Turtle Farm". While the rest of the world simply kills them in nets, Cayman harvests them for food. Now wait a minute before you get upset.

Grand Cayman became a popular stop for sailing ships hundreds of years ago because it had fresh water, and lot's of turtle meat you could get. And over the years - with hunting them, and taking away their nesting areas - the turtles were virtually non-existent in Cayman. Then they started their Turtle farm, and they incubate and raise thousands of turtles. They have tanks set up with everything from very small - to huge turtles.

Then they do massive releases of turtles a few times a year. So they raise many more than they harvest. Because of that, there are now turtles everywhere down there. We always see them when diving Cayman.

Be careful as they do sell turtle products there - shells, meat, etc - but it is an endangered species in the US and a big fine for having any turtle products - so don't get any and bring it to the US. But they do serve turtle soup, turtle meat, etc at the local restaurants.

[Osprey]

Didn't something very similar happen in Hawaii a very few decades ago? Only they don't make farms.. they made killing them punishable by death among the natives...

Interesting, hmm

[Travelnsj]

Well if they did in Hawaii Hmmm....I was just in Kona....I saw one here and maybe one there.....not many Turtles around on the dive sites....Sipadan...they were everywhere also Heron had a good amount.

[lucidblue]

I love turtles too. We saw a few in Cozumel and were able to get up pretty close. When I went to Hawaii (before I was a diver), turtles swam close to the whore every day at 3pm right outside our hotel.