Pssst! You! Yeah, you... are a passenger on a planet... on a blue-green planet that's orbiting a golden star. And right now we are traveling through the part of our yearly orbit where baby hawksbill turtles are hatching from their eggs on Maui's beaches. When a female senses that her eggs are ready, she swims ashore, drags her pregnant body way up onto the sand, and deposits her eggs beyond the high tide line, to protect them from drowning. High and low tides are because of our moon - and the sight of our moon makes lovers want to make love...

Imagine our oceans as an orchestra, with our moon as the conductor. Because our moon is SO close, her gravity tugs at our oceans, causing tides. Because she's orbiting us, she rises 50 minutes later each day, and high tide is 50 minutes later each day. The high tide at the full moon is extra high.

In Australia's Great Barrier Reef coral sex happens five days after certain full moons. At this point in the lunar cycle the difference between low and high tides is minimal, so water flow is minimal. Eggs and sperms are released into the water, where they mix and mate, without being tossed about and separated by water currents.

Here in Hawaii, coral sex is also well timed - and busy. Sponges, brittle stars, and marine worms often spawn at the same time. Myriads of tiny fish often gather around to eat the spawn. This attracts larger fish to dine on the little fish, until a whole food chain is joining in. The timing of all this depends on the lunar cycle. Different kinds of coral mate at different stages of the cycle, depending on their water-level and their water-circulation needs.

Of course, female fish also release their eggs into the sea, where they are fertilized by males. Like so many ocean creatures, they have no need of genitals like ours because the sea is their mating service.

Our lives on land are part of an experiment that started - and stayed - in the ocean for about two-and-a-half billion years. This life did not develop inside the wombs of any creatures, but in the womb of the sea. Here it soaked up nutritious fluids, while being rocked by the rhythm of the tides.

You and I can only imagine what happened when the first ocean creatures found themselves on land. Charles Darwin had a theory about the creature who succeeded in adapting to this dry, hard place: She created a personal ocean inside her body - a womb of nutritious, amniotic fluid with its very own moon tides. A fetus in her safe, little sea could develop until it was ready to swim out onto land. Even today, a woman's fertility cycle is still synchronized with the lunar cycle.

Yes, the sight of baby hawksbill turtles on our beaches now is strengthening my umbilical connection with this watery planet - and with the nurturing rhythm of our moon.

This is Harriet Witt, your guide for this little ride on our passenger planet.


If you have any questions, drop Harriet an email: harriet@passengerplanet.com


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