Oopps... I'm in Turks & Caicos!: June 2013

Monday, June 24, 2013

How did that happen!?

I don't know how, but it's my last week here...and it's a very busy one. I'll do my best to keep up with the posts between studying for the final exam and our last few field exercises.

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Just Another Day in the Neighborhood

Today for one of our classes we went on a nature walk to get more familiar with the local terrestrial plants and animals..and it led us on quite the adventure to abandoned houses and lighthouses.

the salt fields, where salt used to be produced and exported

THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!! Last night we went turtle hunting and it was EPIC! First off inorder to catch a turtle you have to snorkel out to the reefs at night. They usually are sleeping under overhangs or on the sea floor. Once you find one, you need to dive down, grab it, and hold on tight until you can make it to the surface. Then you swim it back to the boat where they are placed on holders to reduce their stress until they can be brought back to the docks to be measures and tagged.
Thus leading into my story. We arrived at the site arounf 8:00, the reef was super creepy again and to make it even better we saw a massive nurse shark wedged under some of the coral. Swimming around my snorkel partner Kayla and I saw a few turtles darting left and right. Then out of the corner of my eye we saw a turtle slowly swimming just off to our right. Our target had been found. She dove down fist to try and grab it but he quickly swam away. We finally caught back up to him and then it was my turn to give it a go. I dove down and was able to swim right up to him. I grabbed him, and had him for just a minute until he shot off out of my hands. Luckily my partner and I were hot on the trail. We were able to keep and eye on him and corral him into the sight of one of our dive masters. The chase continued and finally with all of our efforts we were able to catch him!!

I would never have even dreamed of getting the chance to actually be able to swim with sea turtle, let alone dive down and grab one! It was truly remarkable. We caught three turtles that night, 2 whom had previously been caught and tagged and one new one. Just like the sharks, tagged turtle are entered into a database where they can be monitored by their tag number and name. The team who captured him named him Broseidon: Lord of the Brocean. Once the measurements were taken and the tags clipped on, we drove the turtles back out to the reef to be released.

the turtle dance!

Sharking

Never in my life did I think I would ever feel comfortable in the water with a shark..but somehow I managed to sign myself up for a sharking trip last Friday night. A small group of us set out at 7:00 pm to a shallow mangrove lagoon. There,we set up a net that stretched out 100 meters from the shore and was staked down at the other end in waste deep water. From that point on, it was mostly a waiting game. The 7 of us standing quietly in the water, waiting for something to hit the net. After a few false alarms we finally caught one!! Untangling it from the net we discovered that we had captured a juvenile female lemon shark. We measured and tagged her so she could be recognized if she was ever re caught. The tag also registered her in a database of sharks that are recognized by their tag number and name bestowed upon them by their captors. Because our shark had never been tagged before we were given the task of giving her a name. On Friday June 14th, our shark, Lady 'Merica, was released back into the wild to hopefully be recaptured and studied further in the future.

#teamAmerica