Join whale shark intern Amber on a special day turtle monitoring with the MCSS team...

Having your day off fall on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday is always something to look forward too. It means that you have the option to spend the day with Vanessa (Madanm Torti) and walk some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen looking for turtle tracks and nests. You may even get to witness a turtle digging and laying its’ eggs. 

Last Wednesday started off as your typical beach clean-up day on Grande Police removing debris and low hanging vegetation to allow space for the turtles to nest. After two hours of cleaning a good size area, we walked the rest of the beach and found some turtle tracks. We then walked Petite Police, but did not see any tracks. Our next stop was Bazarca. As we walked along, Vanessa just stopped, sat down the turtle bag and started pulling out the clipboard and GPS. I saw the tracks so I just assumed that’s what we were looking at. I started writing on the clipboard and when I got down the next section on nest information, Vanessa said the Hawksbill turtle had laid eggs. We all looked up and asked her how she knew it laid. She told us that we were looking right at the nest. She put her hand in the mound of sand with vines and coconuts on top and said this is it. Well that turtle definitely fooled me! 

 Vanessa starts excavating the nest...

The nest was right at the high tide line so we had to work fast to move the nest further up the beach. Vanessa, Sophie and I started digging very quickly and gently while Freya ran to the car to get supplies. Once Sophie found the eggs, Freya and I started digging a nest further up the beach above the eroded bank which inhibited the turtle from digging farther up the beach. Sophie and Vanessa laid the eggs under an umbrella in the order they came out of the nest. Once all 149 eggs we removed, we started an assembly line to quickly get the eggs reburied in the order they had come out of the previous nest. 

 Gently removing the eggs from the doomed nest...

Then lining them up in the shade ready to re-locate...

There are no words to describe how precious and rewarding that moment was to me. Holding those precious lives in your hands just makes you appreciate life more yourself. I have several friends and a room-mate  that work for the Broward County Sea Turtle Program back in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and I’ve always listened to them talk about what they do at work. Digging in the sand with your bare hands, placing all the eggs in the nest and then covering it back up and camouflaging the nest gives you a sense of attachment to it. It was nice to get to finally experience that firsthand.  Vanessa said that that is our nest and she will keep us posted on it and let us know when it has hatched. 

And then finally placing them in a new safe nest!

A special thanks to Vanessa and the MCSS team for allowing us the opportunity to participate in these types of activities and gain the hands on experience that will help us move forward as we pursue careers in marine biology and other related fields. 

...Amber Metallo