Hello Steemian friends,
I hope you are all well and ready for the next part of the blog post that I (Becca) will be writing about sea turtles and my time spent volunteering in Crete to help protect this beautiful species Caretta caretta, the loggerhead sea turtle. In last week's post I finished off by talking about the main threats the turtles face in Chania as well as what the main priorities were for the organisation in order to help protect them.
I arrived around mid afternoon at the campsite and almost everyone was out doing their various tasks for the day, both for camp as well as sea turtle related tasks. I was welcomed by another volunteer who had already completed her tasks for the day (she had to re-fill the drinking water bottles from a water fountain in the village and was given the role of making dinner for everyone that night). Within the camp we all took turns of doing the daily cleaning, cooking, shopping, etc. We would all put €20 each into the kitty box (sort of like a petty cash box) to use towards food shopping for the week. It worked quite well. So, I soon put up my tent before it got dark and the others all starting coming back to camp to chill for the rest of the evening. It really felt like a little community, with people from all over the world (Australia, New Zealand, France, Canada, England, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Finland, The Netherlands, Germany, etc) and we all shared similar, if not the same, interests in being there to help save and protect the sea turtles.
On my second night there, we all had a big task on our hands. There was word of a big beach party that was going to happen on one of the biggest nesting beaches in our area, an area where we had already documented many nests that were likely to hatch soon. Our task was to go out in pairs and safe guard one or two of these nests, to protect them from any disturbance from the party, we all know how beach parties end up - drunk and up to no good on the beach or deciding it's a good idea to go for a swim. It was really quite nice to be able to say that we had the chance to protect these species when they are most vulnerable, and to be able to sleep out under the stars on the beach was a bonus. Luckily, no hatchlings hatched that night.
As the weeks went by, I got to help do all of the tasks. Some days I would be on the morning patrol shift, which meant waking up really early at 5am and walking along the 14.5Km beach patrolling and monitoring any hatching or late nesting activity during the night. If there were any, we would document it. We would also make little bamboo "screens" to help guide the new hatchlings from their nests towards the sea, as without the screens the turtles could easily get confused and head towards the streets, hotels and forests behind the beach. It is an amazing thing to witness the new little hatchlings come out from the nest under the sand and make their first journey across the beach, and when they finally reach the sea safely, you get the overwhelming feeling that quite possibly you helped that one individual complete at least this first part of its life safely.
Did you know that only 1/1000 sea turtle hatchlings make it to adulthood?!
Other tasks also involved public speaking on a tourist boat as well as public speaking at various hotel entertainment events. This would help us spread the word of how vulnerable the Loggerhead sea turtle is in Crete and how important it is to help protect them. Raising public awareness!
Towards the end of my 6 weeks there, it was coming to the end of the reproduction season for the turtles. My supervisors, who had been there for longer than I did, knew when each nest was made and which nests had hatched. Each nest could have up to about 120 eggs and they take about 60 days to hatch. So, we had the information of which nest had hatched within that period, and if the 60 day period had long passed, we would then excavate the nest in order to estimate the number of hatchlings that had left the nest. It was an eye opener to learn how many had hatched and how many were not fertilised, which therefore had not hatched, and to find out that some of the un-hatched eggs were in fact albino sea turtles. I had no idea that the sea turtles could be born albino until my days in Chania, Crete. I wonder if there are any adult albino Loggerhead sea turtles out there in the big blue!
I was very sad to leave the Archelon camp in Chania, and to say goodbye to all my new friends. I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of one of the teams that helped protect the sea turtles that year. I will forever remember those days, and I still often think about my time patrolling the beach in Chania.
Hope you have enjoyed reading this post, and I hope that it has made you realise that this planet, with all its beaches, mountains, seas, oceans, hills, deserts and fields, is not only our home, we share it with all the other species out there and it is our responsibility to look out and look after those that are most vulnerable.
Stay classy Steemians,
Wild Wednesday’s is a post written by the @travelling-two every Wednesday to inform their followers and readers about nature and conservation.
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102 eggs!!! great work Becca. Loved the channel you dug ☺️. I'm sure these turtles are forever grateful :)
Thanks @derekcowan and that was just one nest over the six week period I (Becca) was there. I am also grateful that I was able to be there for them. :)
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STOPReally enjoyed your post. It looks like it was much more formal than the turtles we released in Guatemala. I posted about it, but it was much less organized than yours. Thanks.
@qberry the fact that you made a post at all shows a lot of appreciation to this species and brings awareness to their very existence. Whether your post was organized or not is not much concern to us, you had lovely photos and brought a valuable post to share with the community.
Thank you for your comment and hopefully our future Wild Wednesday's will keep you informed about some of Becca's conservation efforts and general information about nature. Thanks again!
Just re-read your post, it looks organised, did you mean that the release you did in Guatemala was not organised?
What an uplifting story! Is an amazing experience that I would love to be part of if i could. I am happy that little one was still alive and kicking when you guys cracked the egg. There is so many species in the world that are threaten with lower and lower populations as years go by, but there is people like you who try to make a little different and help, to at least give them a chance to survive. My 💓 is with you.
@algenisfig, you can be apart of it too! Normally, if you don't have a conservation/animal behavior/veterinary background you would have to pay to volunteer your time. The money goes back into the project, but it is also for your 'experience', it's kinda like conservation tourism.
It's scary as the years go by that there are many species on the brink of extinction. There is just enough hope and time to keep them alive, but we have to act NOW.
Thanks for the ❤️, we are sending some back to you too!
Wow, 1/1000 make it to adulthood! Those are some tough odds haha! I will definitely have more respect for any fully grown turtles that I see in the future :) thanks for the lovely post
I know, really amazing number! And the sad thing is that 1/1000 could also end up caught in fishing lines, getting hit by boats and drowning in plastic rubbish in the oceans. Sounds pessimistic but it's the reality these days, I will also definitely have more respect for any fully grown turtles that I see :) Thank you for your comment.
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nice place👍👍👍
Thanks for the comment @kona - it is a nice place! :)
A little baby turtle highway. How cute is that? :D
Its cute isn't it? There is only one lane on the highway - to the big blue sea! Then they are on their own.
What an interesting story. Thank you so much for sharing it.
The similarities are very impressive, despite the distance.
We developed a sea turtle conservation initiative in the central coast of Venezuela, in the north of South America.
It is called Project Parape, "parape" is the common name given by fishermen to the hawksbill turtle, the species that we dedicate most attention to as the most threatened. This initiative has a deep community base, since the consumption of turtle eggs and meat is an extended practice and we could say that ancestral.
Our job is to protect the nests of turtles, for this we seek to involve local youth to gain the confidence of fishermen and show them the impact of the depredation of these animals on the ecosystem and what sustainable fishing practices can be applied to obtain more benefits of fishing without destroying ecosystems. They themselves have seen the great decrease in sea turtle populations in the area.
It is a great challenge, because the serious crisis we are experiencing in Venezuela complicates making the message reach the local communities effectively. Since it is very difficult to get quality food, especially protein, in this case, the consumption of sea turtles has increased considerably. To which we must add that we no longer have the possibility to be constantly on the beaches due to the high logistics costs.
However, we are convinced that we must continue with our work. It is necessary to transmit citizen awareness for the conservation of sea turtles as a fundamental element for the balance of ecosystems and the identity of our communities, since they are part of the culture of our peoples. If they disappear, with them a part of our history is gone.
Conservation is the first step to start the road towards the sustainable development of our economy and our society. That is why, despite the crisis and the politicians, we continue working in Venezuela.
Hello! Really interesting to read about your story of protecting the Hawksbill turtle. Sounds like you have a huge task on your hands, I really admire that you press on and continue with your work in Venezuela despite the struggles you face. In Crete, the problem was only due to mass tourism, and that was hard to get the message across to locals as well as tourists that Sea turtles need our help in order to exist. Turtle consumption I believe is a big problem to tackle and yes I agree, it is necessary to transmit citizen awareness for the conservation of sea turtles within the local communities. You will only succeed if you get the community backing. I hope you can succeed and continue to work for the turtles protection. Good luck, I wish you all the best!
This is so cool ... we were in Chania and didn't know that had turtles hatching at the beach. So cool!
The turtle nesting beaches are a little bit further down from Chania town itself, but not too far! That's a shame as it would be interesting to see how the project is going if you did manage to visit them. Still we hope you had a great time out in Crete!
We might be back ... we' have to take a Greece vacation once a year and the cheapest flights seem always go to Crete .. we might be back there this summer! If we're in the are we'll check it out!
Cool, it's the best time to go (and turtle nesting season) and hopefully you can do a post about it for all of us to read about their progression :)
very informative and rich content! thanks fore sharing with us:)
You're welcome @vovidi! We are happy you found it informative and thank you for your comment :)
Amazing photos of an unforgettable experience. I never realized that albino turtles were so ubiquitous among loggerheads. It sounds like quite a few of the ones that didn't hatch were albino. The one in the photo almost looks like a baby bird.
Surprisingly, the albino condition amongst loggerhead and green sea turtles are not uncommon, but even a smaller percentage of these survive if they do hatch. Thanks for stopping by and engaging with us. :)
Awesome. Glad that the condition isn’t fatal for them.
Cracking work so nice to see :) 💯🐒
Thank you @vibeof100monkeys we share what we love ❤️ :) ✈️👫
Btw, still waiting for that post about your username 😜 Hahaha
Haha Yes I spend too much time reading and trying to keep up with peoples post I need to write more. Then I miss all the good stuff! I find it hard work. How do oyu mange? I have one or two more about my spiritual journey series the my user name post 💯🐒
It is very difficult to balance, but we normally post Monday to Friday, once a day. Some of the posts are done over the weekend and post on the corresponding days. Therefore, we have time to read up on good posts and upvote/comment (always do both). It's getting harder as we follow more people as we want to upvote/comment almost everything. When you do your post about your username, please copy the link and paste it in one of our post as a comment. We don't want to miss out on reading it (just in case your post gets lost amongst the others). :) ✈️👫
haha seems everyone has the same problems. We need an option in the feeds to highlight certain tads or people I think. Will do enjoy! 💯🐒
Isn't that the mute button next to 'Follow', some sort of option? We wouldn't mute anyone intentionally. We did it the other day to try it out and we think and hope we unmuted it...otherwise that would be embarrassing!
Yes, an A.I. to see whom we interact with more to filter their posts, but this would be counter-productive of the idea of Steemit - sharing creativity and inspiration for all to see. It is still early stages, so we shall see.
No I mean in the space on the right a place to put our favourite tags. Also a option not an A.I so we can personally select when certain people have posted maybe. Not filtering anyone out more highlighting people! 💯🐒