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NII still cannot believe this happened. Let alone seeing the rarest possible sea turtle.
But I was not prepared for having a real dinosaur do a backflip in front of my eyes and then deciding to swim through me...
The leatherback sea turtle has remained unchanged in Evolution over the last 100-110 million years. Which means they were already here when the T-Rex came and stayed long after they went extinct.
They are very deep divers, on the hunt for jellyfish, taking only short surface breaks and stay down for a long time, which makes it so difficult to spot them.
And now the sad part: The Eastern Pacific leatherback is among the most critically imperiled marine turtle populations worldwide, with estimates indicating fewer than about 1 000 adult females remain.
Dedication, skill and a tiny bit of luck that we were able to catch this needle in a Pacific haystack with @apexoceandivers
#leatherback #turtle #mexico #OceanGiants #underwater
@nik_oceanlife
