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!
The first excavation of the season in Chania. This is the first step.
Once the nest is reached, the supervisor starts carefully taking out the eggs from inside, and places them on the side to be counted.
Eggs are all laid out and organised in rows of 10. This nest had 102 eggs!
This egg did not hatch, but when it was opened we saw that it was an albino sea turtle. It looks so fragile.
This little hatchling had not hatched from its egg when we excavated the nest, however when we opened the shell we found it still alive and soon started racing down the beach to reach the sea. We were amazed and so happy it was alive!
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,
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