Meet Fly, the guardian of the hawksbill sea turtles on Santa Catalina Island

"Amidst an endless expanse of blue and green, 10-year-old Eusebio Webster swam in the sea off the islands of Providencia and Santa Catalina, in the Colombian Caribbean. He was accompanied by 50 or 60 hawksbill sea turtles; he encountered them while searching the depths of the reef for fish and lobsters to eat. At that age, he learned to dive by watching fishermen get off their boats and return home with snapper fish and snails."

"Then, he started diving himself. He would leave school at 4:30 in the afternoon and go sailing with his friends not far from the bay, returning to land with about 30 lobsters. Today, at the age of 72, things are no longer as they were. When he goes out to sea and his body floats in the water, he doesn't spot anywhere near the same number of hawksbill sea turtles that accompanied him during his adolescence."

Eusebio Webster learned to dive at age ten in the waters off Providencia and Santa Catalina, often swimming among dozens of hawksbill sea turtles while hunting fish and lobsters. He now rarely sees such numbers; at 72 he may spot one or two over months. Thirty-five years ago he built a wooden turtle nursery in front of his house to protect hatchlings until eight months to a year, then release them to the sea. He hopes released turtles survive despite a local red zone where human consumption and the jewelry trade threaten their survival. He seeks to reconnect Raizal youth with their ancestral marine life.

Read at english.elpais.com