Maritime students' update at the end of their work attachment

The last blogs from the trainees......

Keith’s blog

Keith & volunteers with their encounter

Hello my name is Keith Folette, I’m studying at SMA (Seychelles Marine Academy).On my first day I encountered my first sea turtle (Hawksbill). This work attachment has really helped me develop my skills in the conservation sector.

Collecting egg clutch survival data

 At MCSS we work mainly with sea turtles and fresh water turtles, I learned a lot about them, and about their nesting seasons and their environment. And here at MCSS we are a rehabilitation centre so we help the injured turtles, we have a few Jacuzzi which we recycled and use as a habitat for the turtles, we organize the Jacuzzi into a temporary habitat for the mud turtles and every week we clean the water filters with the Jacuzzis to make sure that they stay in good running condition. So I really like this attachment, I really feel like I learned a lot. And the staff are really fun and friendly. In the near future I might consider working here….if the opportunity arises!

Isabella...........

This is my last week at banyan tree with MCSS…. it has been such an adventurous journey for me. During the weeks at MCSS I’ve been really busy with turtle tracks, nests and turtle encounters especially on Mondays on the Grand Police beach. Last week I dug a nest on Anse Louis that had already hatched to see how many made it to the open sea, well sadly we found 10 little hatchlings dead and some eggs were rotten and some were not fully developed but 135 survived and that is quite good. At the center I also learned how to clean the filters  for the tanks of the terrapins and I also did some terrapin trapping around banyan tree wet lands, if we catch them we bring them back to the center and we measure, weigh, and tag them to know their movement. Around the center we also get some tourist that comes to visit so I give them a little tour around because we also have an exhibition about sea turtles, terrapins an animal’s around the wetland. I had a great experience here at MCSS; I really learned a lot…even more than I expected, the staff here is really friendly and corporative. My work attachment has been very fruitful.