Читать книгу National Geographic Kids Chapters: The Whale Who Won Hearts: And More True Stories of Adventures with Animals - National Kids Geographic - Страница 8

Now I had pictures of a leatherback underwater. But I wanted to take photos of one swimming. I knew I’d find turtles swimming around Trinidad. But the water there is too murky to get good photos. I needed to find leatherbacks in clear water. So I went to the other side of the world. To the Pacific Ocean!

I headed for one of the turtles’ favorite hunting grounds. It is in the deep water off the Kai (sounds like KEY) Islands in Indonesia (sounds like in-doh-NEE-zhuh).

My assistant Jeff Wildermuth joined me on this trip. When we got to the Kai Islands, we talked to some local fishermen. They gave us tips on how to find turtles.

The fishermen go out to sea in long, narrow boats. Boats like this have been used in these islands for thousands of years. I decided to use one of them to search for leatherbacks. I knew it could be dangerous. The boats are very tippy when the waves get steep! But this was my best bet for getting close to the turtles.

The local people told us they often found turtles around a certain island. Jeff and I set up our tents on the beach there. Then we decided to try our luck.

Jeff and I eased our boat off the sand and into the choppy water. We watched for the glint of a black turtle moving under the silvery waves. Meanwhile, the sun blazed down on us. We gulped water from our water bottles. We paddled around the whole island, searching. Before we knew it, the sun was going down. We hadn’t seen one turtle.