400-pound sea creature stranded on Cayman Island beach. Then California family came by
A nesting mother sea turtle is safe thanks to a California family that took time out of their last vacation day in the Cayman Islands to help her.
It ended up being the highlight of their trip, Bill Schneiderwind said in an Aug. 7 Facebook post reflecting on the chance encounter.
He realized the impact the encounter had left on him while discussing his favorite moments from the trip with his family — his wife Debi, son Anton, and Anton’s friend.
“For me by far it will be the chance opportunity to rescue a giant Sea Turtle,” he wrote on Facebook. “It was stranded on the beach in front of our place, likely for most of the night, before Debi found her in the morning upside down.”
It was obvious to Schneiderwind, whose Facebook profile says he’s from San Diego, that the turtle had exhausted itself from trying to flip back over.
“I looked her in the eye and told her I was there to help,” he said, adding that it might have sounded “cheesy,” but that’s exactly what he did.
While his wife left to enlist their son’s help, Schneiderwind dug into the sand around the turtle’s shell to make it easier to roll her over, he said. He managed to do it himself before his family made it back, and together they herded her back toward the ocean.
A video shows her drag herself into the water — stopping to rest and possibly to take a much-needed drink before swimming off into the sea.
The environment department for the islands also shared the video on Facebook and thanked the family for saving the turtle, which the family nicknamed “Naomi.”
“Turning over a 300-400lb sea turtle is no easy feat!” officials said in the post.
Naomi flipped over when she tried to climb over a low cement seawall but fell over onto her back in the sand, officials said.
While looking around at tracks the turtle had made in the sand during the struggle, the Schneiderwind family found her nest full of eggs. Schneiderwind said the family later got confirmation from the Cayman government that the turtle did indeed lay eggs and officials would monitor the nest and look out for hatchlings in about two months.
“What a lovely story,” someone said in the comments on Schneiderwind’s post. “What are the chances someone as caring and interested would just happen to be nearby.”
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