8am Wid woke me up to get
ready as our boatman was taking us back to the island. I packed my hammock away
and got ready to leave. At 8:30 the boatman arrived and when I got back to the
house I got washed and answered some emails from applicants wanting to
volunteer. I then went for a sleep to get ready for going to Tiga Ruang again
tonight. When the others got back from the survey we went for lunch, today I
had a "special burger" this was mayo, cucumber, tomato, beef party
(not sure what it was, very strange looked raw), cheese in a bun with chips.
Tasted really good though. We then went back to the house before me and Dan
went for a turtle Survey again at Pitani beach. We kayaked over there and
started our survey. Dan did the first transect in a similar place to where we
were before, however he said this time visibility was very poor. He finished
his transect and I got in, I went a bit shallower to see if I could see better
but again visibility was poor. I surveyed for a while but nothing and because I
knew I needed to get ready for Tiga Ruang I said about heading back. At Pitani
Dan and I discovered a barbell made of a metal pole and concrete blocks on the
end weighing at least 40kg. Dan got very excited as he is missing the gym life,
so I offered to leave him on the beach and paddle back to the village on my
own. There is something very satisfying about kayaking on your own. I got back
to the village put the Kayak away and then got ready for Tiga Ruang. Nick had
given me a list of food we needed there as there is no way of Nick getting food
other than deliveries from us. Wid had been to the mainland to do some shopping
so at 5 we met her on the Jetty to get the rest of the list. I was going over
to Tiga Ruang with two volunteers. I'm really enjoying the responsibility of
being volunteer and research coordinator and so far they've all respected me.
When we got to the beach, Nick greeted us and we unloaded the delivery. I got
my hammock set up and then Nick started dinner.
He had prepped vegetable
fried rice and was waiting on the dried anchovies I had brought him. Anyone who
knows me I am not a fish person generally. However, these anchovies were really
nice, a little salty but not overpowering. After dinner we washed up and then
Nick did the 8pm patrol. I then did the 9pm patrol and didn't spot anything.
When I got back Nick was waiting for me, I forgot to take the volunteers with
me. It was okay though as it was early so less likely for something to happen.
I did the 10-2 shifts with one of our volunteers Rachel. The 10pm shift we saw
false crawl tracks. These happen when the Turtle decides not to lay due to
condition of where she stops. In this case she crawled up to the end of the
beach and immediately turned back and went into the sea. We headed back to camp
and I started watching the film Inception. Rachel went back to sleep. At 11 I
woke up her and we did our patrol, we were only a few metres down the beach and
I spotted some tracks. These tracks had no sign of return tracks. We followed
them up and they appeared to stop at a rock then I noticed how they went off to
the left and deeper up the beach. I got Rachel to get Nick as I had not been
trained about procedure when faced with a nesting turtle. She had started building
her body pit, this was the first stage of the egg laying. When Nick got there
she had been body pitting for a while, once she had made her body pit she
started building her egg chamber. This is a deeper hole that she lays the eggs
into. This can also take a while and she still wasn't done at 12 so me and
Rachel did a quick patrol we found another false crawl but no turtle. When we
got back some of the fishery staff had come over and started to get ready for
egg extraction. Jarr one of the fishery staff who speaks quite good English dug
under the back flipper and set somewhere up to put the eggs. When laying,
turtles tend to go into numb states until it is over so she is very unfazed.
However the flipper and tail are still sensitive. Jarr had already counted
about 50 eggs and then he asked If I'd like to have a go. I lay on my chest and
picked up the eggs. They were round and white like golf balls but slightly
smaller. Being that close to a turtle was an amazing experience. In total she
laid 105 eggs, laying mainly one by one but sometimes 2 at a time. Next job to
do was to measure the carapace width and height.
Nick showed me how and then
I had a go. It was done during her Camouflaging of the nest stage. She flicks
sand back onto her back flippers so makes measuring interesting. Once
measurements were done, it was around 2 so we did another patrol while we
waited for her to be done. On our way down the beach I looked into the water
and spot another turtle about to emerge. We stopped at some rocks and waited
for her to emerge completely. She disappeared past some rocks and I waited to
see what she was deciding to do as she was in a poor conditioned spot for
nesting. I could hear her still trying to body pit so I sent Rachel to get
Nick. While I waited for Nick I heard her move from the spot she was body
pitting in. She seemed to go out of sight then I heard her again. I found her
wedged under a tree and she was body pitting again. When Nick turned up with
the bucket for the eggs, she had just started building her egg chamber however
she was so far under the tree we couldn't get it. Nicks first thought was to
just mark it and wait for fisheries to turn up and deal with it. Then 3 guys
from the fisheries turned up and laid down and managed to dig out the eggs. Seb
one of the volunteers was in charge of counting. I think we had only 67 but
this female looked younger than the first she because was smaller and her
mannerisms. We managed to photograph one side of the face but not both.
Many of the turtles that
nest during the night are not the same as turtles that feed during the day. We
waited for her to camouflage and go back to the sea. Then that was my shift
over so I went back to my hammock to sleep. If there was any turtle activity
Nick would wake me but there wasn't.
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