One month, two turtle encounters, and hundreds of hatchlings later, my volunteering
time with MCSS has sadly come to an end. But what an amazing experience this
has been! For my first turtle encounter I arrived just in time to see her lay the
last of her 212 eggs. I’ve always had a lot of respect for animals and what
they are capable of, but when you witness the effort these turtles have to go
through to make their way up the beach, dig a nest, lay around 100-200 eggs,
cover the nest and camouflage the area before returning to the ocean (and
repeat this 2-3 times during one nesting season), your respect for them just grows
immensely.
The same goes for the little ones, digging their way through the sand,
walking along the beach surrounded by crabs ready to attack, and entering the
wide ocean where more threats await. It is fascinating to watch them
intuitively move towards the sea, how they speed up the closer they get, and
how they conquer every footprint in the sand or rock.
During one of our hatchling rescues however, we found them stuck in a
water hole and underneath one of the hotel villas. When turtles hatch during
the night, they move towards the reflection of the moonlight on the ocean.
However, when bright hotel lights are on, they can become disoriented and end
up lost. One way to prevent this is to use red bulbs instead as the turtles
cannot see this wavelength. This has been implemented by various hotels and
hopefully the Banyan Tree Resort will follow suit. Once the hatchlings had been
rescued, we placed them on the sand a couple of meters away from the ocean
because this is important both for their personal development and so they can
find their way back to the beach years later
On the same day as this rescue operation we noticed a Hawksbill turtle
nesting on the beach. Since her nest was very close to the high tide line, we
waited for her to finish and then relocated the egg clutch to prevent the nest
from being flooded. This is a delicate process as the eggs should not be
rotated and the nest conditions (including the order in which the eggs were
laid) should be kept as similar as possible. A very interesting experience,
both for us and the tourists on the beach.
There were also two special events during my time here. One was the
National Protected Areas Day where conservation societies in the Seychelles
come together to present their work to each other and the public. It was very
interesting to learn about the different conservation efforts made across the
islands and to meet such a large number of people involved, including Jeanne
Mortimer. She has spent over 40 years studying turtles across the world, moved
to the Seychelles in 1981 where she has contributed to local turtle protection
as well as international research, and was awarded a “Lifelong Achievement
Award” from the International Sea Turtle Society in 2016. It is mainly thanks
to her efforts that the government and locals have changed their mindset, and
the killing of turtles (common for their meat) has become illegal, resulting in
high fines and prison charges. It was inspiring to meet someone with so much
passion and dedication to turtle/nature conservation. The second event was
World Wetland Day, for which we organized a tour around the beautiful
Intendance wetland for guests staying at the Banyan Tree Resort. It is always
nice to teach others about the work performed by MCSS and perhaps to inspire
them to help preserve nature and care for animals.
My stay on Mahe Island has been amazing and I will definitely miss the
turtles, people, stunning white sandy beaches and turquoise water. But now it
is time to embark on a new adventure: volunteering with rhino conservation in
Uganda!
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