According to that lovable loggerhead Crush—the surfer-dude sea turtle from the movie Finding Nemo—the East Australia Current (EAC) is a sea turtle highway, where turtles hitch a free ride from one place to another, and this observation isn’t too far from the truth.

This beach was first noticed in 1974, when Robert Bustard visited the mangrove forests of Bhitarkanika—in Orissa on the east coast of India—in search of saltwater crocodiles. In passing, he heard of a beach where thousands of turtles arrived each winter. The following year, he returned with a group of young and enthusiastic biologists, and soon after announced to the world that they had discovered the world’s largest rookery for the species.