I was asked to help with a local scientific group in their quest to count, measure, and tag the turtle population of southern Belize, and of course I jumped at the chance! Three days of snorkeling and counting turtles while staying out on the cayes sounded like the job for me.... I was excited, but a bit intimidated, as we loaded up the boat and began to head out to the cayes that morning. I was the only rookie (and not native born) on the team, and besides that I didn't know most of the scientific turtle terms! For example, we were identifying the species, measuring the carapace three ways, and recording if they are male or female turtles. Well, now that I'm educated, let me share; there are four species of turtle in Belize- Green,
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