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Published: February 1st 2007
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Hawksbill close-up
Darren holding a small Hawksbill sea turtle. If you look closely at its face you can see where it gets its name. I caught my first turtle today!! It’s been months since our last blog, so I guess I should back up a little bit. My mom came down to visit after Christmas and we had a wonderful time with her, showing her around and spending time together. And with her came our new computer, so we should be able to do a better job keeping up the website now. We hope that everyone had a nice Christmas and New Years!
Back in late November/early December we began to get involved with the Saint Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network (SKSTMN). In December a Kittitian (a person from St. Kitts) who is studying for his master’s degree in Barbados returned for about 3 weeks to continue gathering data for his research project. Members of the SKSTMN joined in to help as well as collect our own data from captured turtles. He is doing a genetic analysis of the critically endangered Hawksbill sea turtles that forage on the reefs of St. Kitts. In order to get the necessary data, as well as tag the turtles for future tracking, they must be caught by hand, in the water…and believe me, it is no easy task!
Mom holding a turtle!
When my mom was here she came out tagging with us one day! She snorkeled a bit, then waited on shore for us to come back with a turtle. I was really glad she got to experience turtle tagging with us! Let’s just say that we were told that usually people are really excited to help out, but most never come back after the first day once they realize how much swimming is involved. The first day we went out (Matt and I and a few others) Matt and I didn’t even SEE a turtle until it had already been captured and Darren (the one going to grad school in Barbados-- he swims like a fish !) was swimming back to shore with it! Basically our days would consist of snorkeling out along reefs for 4 or 5 hours looking for anything that wasn’t a rock, coral, or fish and therefore might be a turtle! Once spotted, we were supposed to signal to Darren who would quickly swim over and try to catch it. He was the only one who even stood a chance of actually catching a turtle…he can free dive up to 60 feet and hold his breath for nearly 3 minutes-- all very useful skills when trying to catch Hawksbills. As Matt describes our initial experiences, “Well, I’d see a turtle and raise my hand…then I’d see the turtle fly be me, then Darren fly by me, and
Turtle Being Tagged
A tag is inserted into each front flipper (think of getting your ears pierced). Each tag has a unique identification number on the front, and contact information on the back for anyone who encounters this turtle later to share its current location and other information. in a couple of minutes Darren would surface holding the turtle.”
Anyhow, Darren is now back in Barbados, but we want to help him continue to get the DNA samples he needs to complete his project, as well as tag more turtles and do health screenings, draw blood, and take measurements as well to continue to assess and monitor the population. Before Darren left there was another guy, Joseph, who started to learn to dive for the turtles as well, and he’s gotten quite good. So today was the day I decided to give it a try! Matt had quite the eye for turtles today (they blend in so well sometimes that you can swim right above them and never know they’re there) and spotted them more than 4 times, which was good for me since I missed the first 3 times!! =) But alas, I caught one! I don’t feel quite the sense of accomplishment I thought I would, but that’s probably because I know I’ve got a LONG way to go before I’m really efficient at it (ie able catch them consistently and in different environments). But at least it’s a good start!
Well, I think
that’s it for now. Maybe we’ll write some more later or else sometime soon. It’s hard to get back in the habit after not writing for so long. I wish we could go back and cover the last few months, but that would be quite a daunting task! I’m sure as we go along we’ll remember to go back and cover the important things and post some pictures from mom’s visit, carnival, our hike from one side of the island to the other, etc. We hope you are all well, and we miss you! And I miss the snow!!! …don’t think Matt does, but I do and I can’t help it!
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Christine
non-member comment
Glad to see that you are having fun in St. Kitts!! I am also happy that I will be able to read about your adventures again now that you have a new computer!! Hope all is well and I am with Matt all the way-I would never miss the snow and if I had a choice I would be far far away from it!!!