Introducing Nina - the newest member of the Ninja Turtles team!

Hey, I’m Nina  

I have recently finished my masters in Marine Environmental Protection and I am two weeks into an internship at MCSS. I am taking part in Vanessa’s project, where she focuses on creating temporal protected areas and legislation in relation to turtle distribution and their critical nesting beaches.

During my first day at the centre I was lucky enough to experience my first turtle encounter of 2018, which was also MCSS’s first turtle of the new year. 

digging the egg chamber

The following week, a turtle which was missing her hind right fin due to a shark attack attempted to nest on Anse Cachee. After making 4 body pits and failing to dig a nest due to too many roots, she finally found the right spot and nested. Her initial struggle paid off as she successfully laid 113 eggs (although they were much smaller than expected) and began to make her way back to the ocean. 

struggling to get over the rocks

With a little help to make it over the rocks she had finally completed her laying process. This took between 3-4 hours, which is a lot longer than the usual turtle nesting behaviour. The appropriate data was collected during this encounter including GPS location of the nest, photos of her face for use in the photo identification software (I3S) and carapace measurements. 

The monitoring and the data collected will contribute towards the development of management plans for nesting turtles.

So far this was most beautiful Hawksbill turtle and the most eventful encounter I have experienced. I hope my time at MCSS will continue to be as interesting and full of turtle encounters.