The You're listening to noctter. I'm Vanessa Lowe.

The moon, the stars and the tides are through lines, connecting us to the beginning of life on our planet.

These lines can flicker in and out of awareness and the glare of modern culture, but there are

ancient creatures living among us for whom every breath is a reflection of the moon on the water.

I watched meteor showers from the dark beach and swam in the moonlit ocean. With a stroke of my arm or the turn of a

wave, bioluminescent creatures would shimmer through the sea. On a summer night, a loggerhead sea turtle returned to this beach.

Her flippers swept the sand away in great arks as she crawled to the dune line.

There she dug a flask, a deep nest in the sand,

and laid a clutch of more than 100 round white eggs.

Under the dome of the night sky, she covered the nest with sand and crawled slowly back into the ocean.

Way back in another life, Jennifer Westerman worked as a ranger at a state park on the coast of Virginia.

The park is on the southern tip of a barrier spit that shuts out into the Atlantic Ocean.

It's a pretty unique place because it's geographically isolated.

There's no access by color, so you really have to be determined to get there.

It's this incredible stretch of undeveloped coastline,

and it's one of the few remaining spots

that hasn't been developed. It's one of the few remaining spots that hasn't been developed.

It's the ocean and dunes and American beach grass and sea oats and

and I was fortunate enough to live in the park.

So, you know, when you're out there and there are no visitors left anymore

and you're alone on the beach. It's a pretty unique feeling. I remember several nights when, and I have to say that you weren't actually allowed to be on the beach at night because the park closes at dusk.

But because I lived there, it was quite tempting to head out to the beach at night.

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