It's been pretty quiet with the turtles in the south and patrols have mostly consisted of collection of rubbish on the main nesting beaches and a few Green turtle tracks here and there, but everyone is now patiently waiting for the appearance of the first Hawksbill turtle to officially announce the nesting season open... we look forward for the first tracks or even better...the first encounter! We have quite a few enthusiastic volunteers and interns around... Kitty shares her axperiences so far....
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| Kitty(left) & Jenny |
My name is Kitty Daniels and I’m taking a year out between
college and university to learn more about Marine Conservation. I arrived at
the Banyan Tree Wildlife Conservation and Rehabilitation Centre at the start of
this week to join Vanessa’s turtle monitoring project. I started off with a
‘Turtle Season Briefing’ which outlined what to do when I find a turtle nest,
and how to collect the relevant data for the project. As it is only the
beginning of the nesting season, we have not spotted
many signs of turtle nesting, but today we found
green sea turtle tracks on Anse Grand Police, which is exiting because Green
Turtles are not common in this part of the Seychelles. I have also helped with
Beach Profiling, which is a monthly survey to monitor the sand movement on the
beach in relation to the nesting platform for the turtles. So far this has just
involved desk-based data entry, but I’m looking forward to getting stuck in on
the beach! I have also taken part in the Banyan Tree Hotel’s ‘Management
Cocktails’, which didn’t involve any cocktails for me, but I was able to speak
to the guests about the upcoming nesting season, and to promote the centre and
offer tours of the facilities. I’m very much looking forward to the next three
months
I will spend here and for turtle
season to really get underway!
