Bài đọc 2
Last summer I spent six weeks as a volunteer on a beach on a small tropical island, helping to protect sea turtles. I had imagined lazy days in the sunshine. In reality, I spent most of my time awake while everyone else was asleep.
Every evening at nine o'clock, our group of twelve volunteers divided into pairs and walked slowly along different sections of the beach until three or four in the morning. We were looking for female turtles coming out of the sea to lay their eggs. Turtles are easily frightened when they first come onto land, so we were not allowed to use white torches or take photos. If a turtle saw bright lights, she might turn around and go back into the water without laying anything.
Once a turtle had started digging her nest, she seemed to enter a kind of trance, and we could move closer. We counted the eggs as she laid them, usually around a hundred, and measured the length of her shell. Then, after she had covered the nest with sand and returned to the sea, we carefully dug up the eggs and moved them to a protected area of the beach, where they would be safe from dogs and people who might steal them.
I learned a lot about turtles during those weeks. For example, the temperature of the sand decides whether the babies will be male or female: warmer nests produce more females. Our team leader told us that rising temperatures are now causing some beaches to produce almost no males at all, which could become a serious problem in the future.
The most unforgettable moment came near the end of my stay, when the first nest we had moved began to hatch. Just after sunset, dozens of tiny turtles pushed their way out of the sand and headed for the water. Baby turtles find the sea by moving towards the brightest part of the sky, which is normally above the water. That is why lights from hotels and roads are so dangerous: they can lead the babies in the wrong direction. We stood in a line with our backs to the town to make sure none of them got lost.
It is often said that only about one in a thousand baby turtles survives to become an adult. Watching them disappear into the waves, I knew that most of them would not make it. But I also knew that without the volunteers, far fewer of them would have had a chance at all.