The start of my adventure in Bonaire...

Getting to Manchester in the early hours of Sunday 1st July I was excited but the nerves had started to set in. After nearly a full day of travelling, I arrived in Bonaire at the appropriately named Flamingo Airport and met the manager of STCB, Mabel Nava, at the airport to take me to where I was staying. I was very enthusiastic as had never travelled this far away before! Bonaire is a small island in the south of the Caribbean that is part of the Dutch Caribbean. The island is home to three species of Sea Turtles; the Loggerhead, the Hawksbill and the Green turtle. These are all either listed as endangered or critically endangered and face a variety of threats across the globe, many of which are human induced. My summer placement here will allow me to help work to protect these magnificent animals and carry out my own research for my Masters in Marine Environmental Management at the University of York.

Early morning at Manchester Airport the sun goes up as I board the plane and the adventure begins!

I began my work with Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire on the 2nd of July. STCB is a Non profit organisation that aims to help protect and conserve sea turtles across their range. The organisation was founded in 1991, to protect the turtles that were threatened by poaching, accidental capture and loss of nesting beaches. It also carries out a variety of research projects in order to understand more about their lives and their behaviour. STCB collaborates with many conservation organisations on Bonaire as well as WIDECAST, which includes the turtle conservation organisations in the wider Caribbean. I was really eager to start work with them as I want to work in conservation in the future.

Not a bad walk to work!

Spectacular ocean views in beautiful Bonaire

The salt mounds and pink salt pans in the south of Bonaire.

My first day working for STCB was very eventful. The day began with an unexpected arrival on Bonaire, an Olive Ridley Turtle found on the East coast of Bonaire in a bay called Lagoen (this species has only been seen on Bonaire once before). She had become entangled in fishing rope attached to a buoy and had drifted a long way with the currents unable to feed properly. She was very malnourished and dehydrated so we took her to a freshwater tank where she could re-hydrate and be fed to try increase her strength. This made it very real to me how these animals are facing so many increasing threats from the likes of fishing and how organisations like STCB are needed in order to help protect them. STCB staff named the turtle Jenny on account that she arrived on the same day I did from a long way away! The next day she was a bit stronger so staff decided to release her at the other side of the island where it is more sheltered. She hasn’t been seen since so lets hope she got back to where she came from or gets to where she is going safely.

An unexpected arrival to Bonaire, an Olive Ridley turtle and my first turtle rescue.

Not only has she come a long way but she has an old wound  from a shark bite at the back of the shell (carapace).

Jenny in the rehabilitation tank to build up her strength, feed and rehydrate  her before she is released.

Jenny the Olive Ridley Turtle.

In the afternoon of my first day I was taken to the beaches in the south of Bonaire where turtle tracks (called a crawl) had been spotted by one of the dedicated STCB volunteer beach keepers. They patrol the beaches every morning looking for signs of turtle activity and prevent any human activity that could harm the turtle nests. The tracks showed an inward and an outward crawl and a body pit. I learnt how to identify the direction of the tracks and where how the female turtle created a body pit. We began to dig and eventually managed to find the top egg of the nest chamber, which is enough to confirm the nest. We also recorded the exact location, freshness, species and flagged the nest so we could keep an eye on it. Actually seeing the experts locate the eggs in the nest, understand the crawl and identify the species was extremely overwhelming and I knew I had a lot to learn in a short space of time!

Following my first turtle crawl!

Careful digging for turtle eggs by Sue, Lisette and Janice from STCB. 

Every Tuesday I work at Lac Bay on the East Coast with Funchi a member of STINAPA to maintain the sea grass protection at Sorobon. Funchi is a gregarious local that is really fun to work and always manages to make me laugh. He seems to know everybody and I am sure he has magical powers when it comes to detecting the eggs when we find a nest as he almost always finds them straight away! The Sea Grass ecosystems within Lac Bay are especially important for Green Turtles and here they have the fastest growth rates in the world due to the rich sea grass habitat. In fact there are so many Green Turtles in the entrance to the bay that local divers call one site Turtle City! This bay is very important for biodiversity and is protected by the marine park and under treaty as being a Ramsar Wetland of International Significance. This bay is also home to the Queen Conch, which is also very endangered and subject to poaching. Sea grass ecosystems are important to help slow water flow and trap sediments and along with the neighbouring mangroves help trap sediment. My role here is to maintain the lines around the sea grass beds making sure they are clean and buoyant so can be seen especially as the Bay is a popular site for windsurfers. Working with Funchi is great as if the windsurfers cross the lines to the sea grass bed they will be chased out by Funchi but everyone respects him and I doubt they would do I again!

The Sea grass beds seen from Sorobon beach resort.

Mangroves

In my next blog I will tell you more about nesting sea turtles on Bonaire and Klein Bonaire.

Please visit www.bonaireturtles.org for more information about STCB or join the facebook group for more news and updates at www.facebook.com/bonaireturtles.

Thanks for supporting me and the turtles.