- Joined
- Dec 14, 2007
- Messages
- 655
I figure I will take the opportunity to tell about my upcoming and past trip to The Caretta Research Project.
Last year I was looking for something to do over the summer and my mom found a "camp" at the zoo that they call the Eco-explorer program where they take a 5 teens down to the project, and another about 15 teens down to panama for a different project every summer. Well I went on the one to Georgia in which we(we five teens and then a "babysitter" from the zoo") flew down to Savannah, GA on a Friday and stayed overnight in a motel, then on Saturday, we took a boat over to Wassaw island, (about an hour by boat from Savannah). Wassaw used to be privately owned, then a while back, the owners decided to turn all but a small compound and about 100m of beach where they can run their dogs over to the Fish and Wildlife Service. In the compound there are about 10 houses that are large, as in huge vacation homes for an isolated island, and two basically sheds with bathrooms that the Caretta Research Project "bases" in. One of the sheds has 6 bunks for the 6 volunteers a week that Caretta employs (we were the six volunteers that week) and the other shed has a small kitchen, and a screened in "dining room" (if you haven't gotten the gist already, there is NO AC on the island and very limited electricity provided by a generator so it is HOT). It also has a small bedroom for the two researchers a week that are on the island. Well enough about the misery, here's what we did:
Every night from about 9-6 we would patrol the 7 mile beach in mules (supped up golf carts), one group of a researcher and 3 volunteers going south and one identical group going north. We were looking for sea turtles that nest on the beach, mainly loggerheads. When we found the turtle, we would wait for it to start laying (after it had climbed up the beach, found a suitable spot and dug a hole, could take up to 2 hours) because then the hormones would kick in and she cant be disturbed, and then would check her front flippers for tags that helped to track her. If she didn't have tags, we would tag her. Once she was gone, we would dig up the nest, count the eggs, place a data logger (records temperature etc.) in the nest, and then cover it back up with the sand and then netting to keep predators from digging it up. On some nests we would move the eggs to another location and bury them there because they were doing a research project to determine the survival rates of in vitro verses relocated nests. We would also fill out a paper with the turtles tag #'s and then record any damage to the animal on a chart.
Throughout the week I believe we got 8 nests which is a good number, and saw 16-17 turtles on the beach, but obviously not all of them laid eggs. This year I'm going back down from the 9-16 with my cousin, but this time for hatching season. If you ever meet up with me and want to hear a couple of stories (I have quite a few ) or want to find out something about the project, be sure to ask. For now I have a few pics, but unfortunately my camera broke two days into it so I don't have that many, but I'll be sure to take a lot more pics this year and post them up when I get back.
top left: welcome to paradise
top right: nope not our cabins unfortuneatly
bottom left: researchers cabin
bottom right: on the inside starring: the babysitter
Last year I was looking for something to do over the summer and my mom found a "camp" at the zoo that they call the Eco-explorer program where they take a 5 teens down to the project, and another about 15 teens down to panama for a different project every summer. Well I went on the one to Georgia in which we(we five teens and then a "babysitter" from the zoo") flew down to Savannah, GA on a Friday and stayed overnight in a motel, then on Saturday, we took a boat over to Wassaw island, (about an hour by boat from Savannah). Wassaw used to be privately owned, then a while back, the owners decided to turn all but a small compound and about 100m of beach where they can run their dogs over to the Fish and Wildlife Service. In the compound there are about 10 houses that are large, as in huge vacation homes for an isolated island, and two basically sheds with bathrooms that the Caretta Research Project "bases" in. One of the sheds has 6 bunks for the 6 volunteers a week that Caretta employs (we were the six volunteers that week) and the other shed has a small kitchen, and a screened in "dining room" (if you haven't gotten the gist already, there is NO AC on the island and very limited electricity provided by a generator so it is HOT). It also has a small bedroom for the two researchers a week that are on the island. Well enough about the misery, here's what we did:
Every night from about 9-6 we would patrol the 7 mile beach in mules (supped up golf carts), one group of a researcher and 3 volunteers going south and one identical group going north. We were looking for sea turtles that nest on the beach, mainly loggerheads. When we found the turtle, we would wait for it to start laying (after it had climbed up the beach, found a suitable spot and dug a hole, could take up to 2 hours) because then the hormones would kick in and she cant be disturbed, and then would check her front flippers for tags that helped to track her. If she didn't have tags, we would tag her. Once she was gone, we would dig up the nest, count the eggs, place a data logger (records temperature etc.) in the nest, and then cover it back up with the sand and then netting to keep predators from digging it up. On some nests we would move the eggs to another location and bury them there because they were doing a research project to determine the survival rates of in vitro verses relocated nests. We would also fill out a paper with the turtles tag #'s and then record any damage to the animal on a chart.
Throughout the week I believe we got 8 nests which is a good number, and saw 16-17 turtles on the beach, but obviously not all of them laid eggs. This year I'm going back down from the 9-16 with my cousin, but this time for hatching season. If you ever meet up with me and want to hear a couple of stories (I have quite a few ) or want to find out something about the project, be sure to ask. For now I have a few pics, but unfortunately my camera broke two days into it so I don't have that many, but I'll be sure to take a lot more pics this year and post them up when I get back.
top left: welcome to paradise
top right: nope not our cabins unfortuneatly
bottom left: researchers cabin
bottom right: on the inside starring: the babysitter