Arrival of the
Rookies...........
Hello everyone, the
first rookie is here!My name is Emiel, I am a Belgian master student of the
EMBC+ program (International Master in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation)
and I am doing my two-month internship here in the Seychelles with MCSS.
The first thing I
noticed when I got off the plane, even before being able to admire the beauty
of the island, was the crushing heat. As a real Belgian I am used to the cold
and wet climate of Northern Europe and I thought the warm tropical climate of
the Seychelles would be a welcome change… It really was after a few days, but I
spend my first day on the island looking for shade and water. Even when I went for a swim I found the water
to be too warm to be refreshing and when I noticed I had no air conditioner yet
in my room I was sure I was going to die that night.
Luckily, I did wake up
the next day because it was a great day, just as all the days that followed
after that! I was greeted warmly (so much warmth everywhere!) by all the staff,
they are amazing people, and by the fresh AC in the office (heaven on earth!).
After settling in I was immediately invited to dig up a nest that hatched the
day before. It was the last nest on the beach, lucky me! We dug up the nest and
found still a few baby turtles stuck while crawling out of the nest. After
counting the eggs, we released them in the sea.The next day, my rookie buddy
Tarek Bakkar arrived at the center. We spend the day monitoring beaches to look
for turtle tracks and potential nests. These are only for the Green Turtle
though as they nest year-round and the nesting season of the Hawksbill Turtle
is over. Because of this there is not a lot of work for the turtle monitoring
program so we help wherever we can with the other projects. Thursday, we
cleared as much of the invasive Water Hyacinth as we could get out of an
important Terrapin pond and set out some traps in some wetlands for Terrapin
monitoring. Friday, we went to an extremely interesting symposium about Coral
Reef resilience and rehabilitation with free food and drinks (that is always
the best part). Overall, we had a very cool and very instructive week and we are excited what
the next 2 months will bring!
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| Emiel & Tarek deciding between the wetland & the sea! |
Hey guys, my name is Tarek Bakkar and I am a Marine Biodiversity and Conservation Student (EMBC) from Germany doing an internship at MCSS for the next two month. I am participating in the turtle monitoring team. On my first day, we patrolled several beaches in the south of Mahé. Most beaches were very quiet in terms of anthropogenic disturbances as well as turtle tracks. Nevertheless, we found one Green Turtle track on the Grand Police Beach. Next to the vegetation we could find traces of sand disturbance but the female turtle did not seem to be happy with the location and went back to the ocean without laying any eggs.
My adventure just started and I am looking forward to the next month making new experience, see hopefully a lot of turtles and other wild life. I will keep you updated!
