Beginning a long journey

Green Turtle hatchling, crosses the reef flat, Great Barrier Reef, Australia
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The instinctual and relentless paddling of a sea-turtle hatchling could have you looking for a battery compartment. Emerging from their eggs, sometimes as far as a metre below the sand's surface, their over-sized flippers start to paddle, upward 'til they break the surface. Once free of the sand, flippers now paddling alternately, determined, it's down the beach, to run the gauntlet of predatory seabirds that gather at the rookeries every summer. Now the first touch of seawater - its body suspended - flippers paddling in unison now, big strokes, less resistance. More predators await, as it crosses the reef flat, still the birds above and now hungry fish below. Still paddling, surfacing for a breath, submerged again, determined to get clear of the busy reef. It's been a frantic start to what will hopefully be a long life at sea.

Nikonos V w/15mm UW Nikkor, Fuji Velvia 50 ISO