Turtle training with staff from Constance Lemuria Resort.

MCSS would like to thank all Constance Lemuria Resort staff who attended the 2008 Turtle Awareness Training organised by MCSS in September 2008. While the power-point presentation generally lasts only an hour, MCSS Research Officer, Elke Talma, spent 3 hours talking about turtles as staff were very keen to learn more and even had some turtle stories of their own to share.

The Turtle Awareness Training was followed by another 3 hour session in Turtle Monitoring Techniques in preparation for the 2008-09 Hawksbill Nesting Season. This session was attended by Robert Matombe, Adrian Allison and Marvin Jolicoeur who introduced themselves in a blog posted in September.

Robert is the Turtle Manager at Constance Lemuria Resort and has been monitoring since 2007. With one year of turtle experience he is now authorised to tag turtles. While he was given theory training with Elke in September 2008, Robert had actually tagged a turtle early in 2008 following an impromptu turtle encounter while Dr Jeanne Mortimer, turtle consultant, was on site.

2008 Turtle Monitoring Techniques Training certificate, photo Elke Talma.