Green sea turtles are huge - adults can weigh as much as 200 kilograms, about the same as two baby grand pianos! They spend almost their whole lives at sea, swimming enormous distances. But when the time comes to lay eggs, females return to the exact beach where they hatched, navigating thousands of kilometres using the Earth's magnetic field like a built-in compass.
At night, a turtle drags herself up the beach and digs a deep hole in the sand with her back flippers. She lays around 100 round, soft-shelled eggs - about the size of ping-pong balls - then covers them up carefully with sand before returning to the sea. After about 60 days, the eggs hatch and tiny hatchlings the size of your hand scramble towards the sea.
Oman has protected Ras al Jinz as a nature reserve with strict rules about how visitors can behave. Visitors can only go with a trained guide at night, using red-tinted torches so the turtles are not disturbed by bright white light. Wardens watch over the nesting beach every night of the nesting season.
Conservationists count the nests and protect the eggs from animals that might dig them up. They also work with fishing communities to make sure turtles are not accidentally caught in nets. Because of these efforts, the Ras al Jinz turtle population is stable and well-protected.

