Wednesday, July 28, 2010

New Guy On The Block

As Elke settles in to her new life on the island of Desroches so MCSS prepares to welcome her replacement as far as the turtle monitoring side of things at least… although small in stature she was a big act to follow and her replacement, Devis Monthy, may be just the guy to do that!

Devis with one of Aldabra's older residents!

Devis hails from our prime turtle area on the South of Mahe, from Anse Gaulette, Baie Lazare and so is more than familiar with the area. He is also more than familiar with turtles having worked on Aldabra first as a volunteer in 2005 and then as a boatman and ranger from 2006 – 2008 where he tagged a great many green turtles as a part of his routine monitoring duties. He is also experienced in the many routine monitoring duties on the atoll including terrestrial monitoring, which will doubtless be of use for the beach vegetation monitoring.

Devis rounding up a whole bucket full of straggling turtle hatchlings for re-direction towards the sea

Devis most recently assisted on the aerial survey of cetaceans and marine megafauna in the Western Indian Ocean, a marine mammal project implemented by the University of La Rochelle in France.

Devis starts at the beginning of August and may have already met some of the monitoring team during a familiarisation visit with Elke at the end of last month, so do keep an eye open for him and say ‘Hi’ if you see him on the beaches in the coming weeks… it will take a while for him to get to know everyone!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Elke’s last blog

After more than 7 years of working with MCSS, 6 of which were dedicated to turtles, it is time to move on...to chase other turtles on Desroches!!!

This being my last MCSS blog, I am at a loss about what to say.

When David first suggested blogging, I was not impressed; in fact I thought it was the stupidest idea ever! I was already editing and publishing 3 newsletters for MCSS and now he wanted me to write a @*#$%£^ diary!

My first blog hinted at my feelings, but gradually I got into the swing of things and now I live for my blogs. In fact, I have discovered that not only do I like to hear myself talk; I also like to read what I write….repeatedly!!!

The MCSS Turtle blog was launched in September 2008, a month after the MCSS Whale Shark blog. After a few weeks David set up a counter for hits to our sites and being a little competitive by nature, I now had a reason to blog... I was going to out-blog the whale sharks!!!

Unfortunately, I failed!!!

The Turtle site lags behind by about 700 hits, however, my turtle loving pals and I have managed to write a total of 120 blogs compared to a measly 91 on the Whale Shark blog, proving that turtles still RULE!!!

I would like to thank everyone who has consistently read my blogs, especially those who volunteered to submit their own turtle blogs to the site... with any luck we have managed to convince a few people that turtles are important and should be protected.


Turtles of Mahé can breathe a sigh of relief as Elke leaves to “torture” turtles on Desroches, photo Ismael Mahmutoglu

Happy turtle “hunting” to you all.

MCSS wish Elke all the best with her move onto Seychelles outer islands... we have tried to warn the turtles what's about to happen!! The MCSS Turtle monitoring blog will continue with Elke's replacement and we hope Elke can send the odd message in a bottle for us to post...

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Life-cycle of a Turtle


The SWOT website has been updated and includes an interactive diagram about the life cycle of sea turtles.

You can explore this interactive diagram and learn all about the life of a turtle by visiting here

SWOT issue V

The fifth issue of the SWOT Report was launched at the 30th Annual Sea Turtle Symposium in Goa, India. This volume puts the spotlight on Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) and olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) turtles, with a 9-page special feature about these mysterious animals, including a comprehensive map of their global biogeography and an article focused on the “riddle of the ridley.”

As always, SWOT Report, Vol. V also features a variety of interesting stories from throughout the sea turtle research and conservation community.

To download your copy of the report visit the SWOT website.