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October 2000
Oceans: Shell Game
Visitors to Australia’s Mast Head Islet reined in green turtles for a wild ride over the water. Thrill-seekers climbed on the backs of sleeping
turtles, startling them into action as they plowed through sand into the
sea. It was “a game that requires a steady nerve and a bathing costume,”
wrote Charles Barrett in National Geographic’s September 1930 article,
“The Great Barrier Reef and Its Isles,” where this photograph was
originally published. “Though a turtle can carry a person with ease, it is
quite a feat to ride one after it has entered its natural sphere, for it
moves swiftly.”
The turtle won this round, once it reached deep water, but about a thousand of its kin lost out to another local specialty. According to the article, a
turtle-soup factory listed them on the ingredients labels of 36,000 tins
of soup. |
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Photograph by Horace Bristol |
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