This was a busy week for everyone.
In the beginning, we started Spanish lessons. Our program coordinator, Raul, taught us basic phrases and terms associated with turtles, and how to speak to tour guides to determine if they have seen any turtles, what species, where they are and what position they are located. This has already proven helpful on night patrols when we encounter tour guides on the beach.
I’ve also been using Duolingo on my phone to learn conversational Spanish. It’s similar to Rosetta Stone, but free and very portable, since you can have one account for all of your devices. The phrases we learn don’t necessarily make sense, but the research assistants agree the funnier the phrases, the more we remember how to conjugate verbs. Phrases include: La tortuga bebe leche (The turtle drinks milk) and El pato no es suyo, es mio (The duck is not yours, it’s mine). We will continue our practical Spanish lessons (along with Duolingo) for the next few weeks.
Mid week, the Sea Turtle Conservancy administration arrived from Gainesville in preparation for Tour de Turtles. This is a 3-month long event where we track a few sea turtles and measure the distance traveled. The turtle that travels the furthest ‘wins’. They track them by attaching satellite transmitters to the carapaces of the turtles and every time they surface for air, it sends a signal to a satellite which bounces to the information center. This event is created to bring awareness to sea turtle conservation efforts and the threats to their survival. Each turtle has a cause they are swimming for, which include harvesting of shells for jewelry, nest poaching, turtle poaching, trash in the oceans and more. Anyone can follow their journey by visiting http://www.tourdeturtles.org, but the actual ‘race’ begins August 1 and continues for 3 months. This is because the team has to travel around the Caribbean and release turtles at various locations.
While they were in Tortuguero, we affixed 3 satellite transmitters to 3 different turtles (2 greens and 1 hawksbill) with two of them being public releases. During those, we travel in to town and invite the villagers and the guests of the lodges to come and witness the release.
On Thursday, we released a green turtle named Esperanza (‘Hope’ in Spanish). The cause she is swimming for nest poaching. We encountered her on Wednesday night, waited for her to lay her eggs, and while she was returning to sea, we coaxed her in to a box to attach the satellite transmitter early the next morning before the public release.
Attaching the transmitter with a low heat epoxy. The transmitter will remain attached for 1-1.5 years until it eventually falls off. It is attached to the scutes of the shell, which are made of keratin – the same as your fingernails. The scutes are shed regularly.
After the epoxy dried, we allowed visitors to come see and learn about sea turtles, why they are endangered and why we are having this event. Once all visitors had the chance to see her, we carried her in the box to the beach for the release.
Esperanza, a green turtle, making her way to the sea with the crowd watching.
Once she entered the sea, everyone cheered with joy and everyone was in good spirits.
That evening we started to prepare for another release, potentially two if we captured a critically endangered Hawksbill. While at dinner, we received a call from the local police department saying they caught a poacher who was stealing turtle eggs. Later, We realized it was Esperanza’s nest – the same turtle that was swimming to raise awareness of nest poaching that we released earlier that day. In a twist of fate and a happy ending to the story, the police department actually recovered the eggs and returned them to us that evening. We immediately left dinner and relocated the eggs in a secret spot that was hidden from poachers.
A few hoursafter reptile eggs are laid, they the embryo starts to attach to the inside of the eggs. If the are turned or jostled, the embryo will detach and die. We hope relocated them quickly enough and that the poachers didn’t move the eggs too much.
The eggs of Esperanza we relocated. The counter is showing how many there were.
After the eggs were relocated, we headed out for another night patrol with the hopes we would capture a Hawksbill turtle. A few hours in, one of the teams had a green turtle, so we decided to capture her with the intent of attaching the transmitter and have a public release the following morning. After she was in the box, we received a call about a Hawksbill nesting 1/8 mile from the station. It couldn’t have been more perfect. They decided to attach a transmitter to the green caught earlier in the evening, release it and then capture the Hawksbill turtle for the release the next morning. We are still waiting for a sponsor for the green turtle, but the Hawksbill was named Estrella (‘Star’ in Spanish).
The team was even more ecstatic about Estrella. Hawksbill turtles are the most endangered of all 7 sea turtle species due significantly in part of the jewelry trade. They are caught and killed for their beautiful shells to make high value items. One carapace in Tortuguero can fetch upwards of $1,200 American dollars. Typically when you see items made from tortoise shell, they come from this turtle and are illegal to sell.
Estrella making her way to the sea with the transmitter.
Close-up of Estrella.
Success!
The team that helped put everything together. An incredibly fun group of people to work with. Back: Dan, David, Ivan, Raul, Nerine, Rob, Emma, Clara, George, Georgina, Silvio, David. Front: Alfredo, Me, Becca, Hanna, Addie, Lexie, Diana, and Emma is in the purple.)
Tortuguero Traveler 