The maritime students share their experience so far

For our first day of work attachment at MCSS, we had a familiarization with the staff and the centre itself. We started the day with a turtle patrol on nine different beaches and also got the chance to see a turtle at Anse Corail, it was digging its hole for it to nest but unfortunately the area wasn’t suitable due to Coconut roots in the ground and the turtle went back to sea. Before it got back in the water, we measured its shell and took pictures of both sides of its face for identification.

happy to be observing a turtle!

monitoring the beach

Back at the centre we x-rayed three female terrapins to see if there are no eggs inside, then we measured and weighed one, Celeste painted it for identification. Pictures of the plastron and shell were taken for identification, we had to look through the system to see if it had been caught before and it did, its name is SATAN.

During the course of the week we learned many things, we fed Eden the turtle, cleaned its 

tank and doing trips to the beach to get sea water to fill up its tank. We learned about trapping, a method used to catch terrapins using mackerel as bait, we set them up in different wetland areas. We also cleaned the terrapin’s tanks were we keep them for a while when we catch them, before releasing them again back where they were found.

We also did some bird survey and more turtle patrols; we had a turtle at intendance beach Thursday morning. It had already laid its eggs when we got there and it was in its covering stage, we measured the tracks and also the turtle. We saw that it had been tagged and we recorded it but we took pictures to identify it, it was very exciting.

restraining for measurements and ID pictures

Following the turtle project leader Vanessa

Terrapin Bloom

At the end of September 2016 we got a call from a Lady saying that she found a terrapin on the beach!! Which we found weird because they are usually supposed to be in wetlands, so Jonatan my colleague and I went to Anse Boileau to pick up the terrapin at the lady’s place, as we got there we noticed that it was a yellow bellied terrapin, a critically endangered species, we were so happy about that. Now we have the terrapin here with us at the Wildlife Conservavtion & Rehabilitation Center for observation. So far the yellow bellied terrapin is doing fine, we even named it Viki!

Myself (Rebecca) & Jonatan.... selfie time!

Introducing Viki!

Lately in the South we have been intensifying our terrapin tracking by putting 20 traps in the wetlands instead of 3 like we used to do. So far it has been some successful as well as tiring couple weeks since we have been getting a lot more terrapins than usual. Great news is that we have been getting about 9 Yellow Bellied terrapin, which they are usually rare to find and catch. Upon capture,data is collected from each individual then they are released back at the capture site if they are observed to be healthy.

                                              

Can you spot the terrapin?

Yesterday was 'work out day'! Basically this is when the team gets together for a few trips at the beach collecting sea water to refill Eden's tank (our little Hawksbill patient). It's all about physique, walking up and down the beach carrying  30litres containers of sea water..... but we do it all in the name of conservation...and Eden is always very happy to have a refill!

The hard work paid off....Eden is happy!

Relocation of Nest on Intendance

Egg clutch found!

Our 1^st Hawksbill nest at Banyan tree beach or Intendance beach had to be relocated the due to the high tide that was reaching up to the egg clutch area. This was my 1^st time ever doing nest relocation, digging to find the exact area where the eggs was laid  can sometimes take few trials until you find it. I got lucky by finding the exact area where the Hawksbill layed its eggs.

Vanessa explains correct handling of the eggs

 The whole team worked together to make this possible,  one holding the umbrella so that the eggs does not get direct sunligth, two carefully removing the eggs from the nest, and the other two were digging a new hole for the nest area that we all thought was safe enough from the high tide.

Rebecca and Vanessa carefully removing the eggs 

 We also had some little fun by playing a guessing game about how many eggs we thought the turtle layed,  no one got the exact number but Alex got his guess close enough, so basically he won, by his prediction of 160 eggs and Vanessa had predicted some close enough digits with 143! The actual amount of eggs was 153. We were all happy with the job well done, and can’t wait to hopefully see the hatchlings come out and start their adventure in this big world.  

Vanessa 'lays' the eggs in its new location

Leonie's journal update...

27^th of June – 1^st of July

Monday

Nothing special happened in the morning, the tanks and the centre got cleaned and chichi got his food. Eden had no food over the whole weekend but he is still not eating on his own. But I think he is trying more often to dive now unfortunately he still got air in his body so he is not able to stay under water and it costs him a huge effort to dive down.

In the afternoon Vanessa went with Imogen and me to the beaches to profile them. We profiled almost all of them, only a few points at Grand Police were left for an other day during the week. While driving we always have an eye on the garbage on the side of the road and collect as much as possible, special bottles and cans.

Tuesday

The vet told us to start to feed Eden in a different pattern, from now on we feed him one day, then one day of no food, next day we will feed him again and after the third day he does not get food for two days and then the circle starts from the beginning again.

In the late morning the bird survey was made again. Not many birds were around, what was a little bit strange, as the weather was very stormy and wet the last few days. What would mean that all the worms and insect are at the surface.

Thursday

On Thursday I was not in the south working, I helped Sara on Cerf to do the cleaning of the coral nursery grounds. We had very good visibility and we were done with the monitoring and the cleaning after little less than a half an hour. Unfortunately, almost all corals died already, only 35 are left. After the job was done we also enjoyed the reef a little bit. A big group of glassfish was around which was very nice.

After a nice lunch we went out again to do the monitoring of the corals but the cameras both were out of batteries and so we could not finish it.

We returned to the office around 3pm and Sara typed in the data of the day into the computer. Margoux also spotted a turtle earlier during the day. She took pictures of it and these pictures were added to a program, which helps to identify them. The turtle was never spotted before. I took the 4:15pm ferry back to Mahe.

Sitting in the middle of the big track!

Friday

A very exciting day today! While finishing the beach profiling with Vanessa at Grand Police Bay we spotted a fresh turtle nest from a very big big green turtle. The nest must be younger than 24h. We could see that the turtle dug at different places at the same spot and there was an other whole 20m down the beach but this one looked empty. As a very high tide probably could reach the nest, Vanessa decided to relocate the eggs. The plan was to bring them to a save place at Intendance beach. Full of motivation we went to the beach again and were looking for the eggs. Unfortunately or luckily (that is the question now), we could not find them. Mama turtle did a very good job and hopefully nobody or nothing else will find them. In the end we had to close our big holes again and we marked the area. Sometimes you can not beat the nature….

More than half of the day was already over, when we returned to the office. After lunch Vanessa and Imogen cleaned all the bottles we collected during the last few days. All the money which we get for the empty bottles goes to MCSS, even when it is not super much it still helps.

A few barnacles were attached to some bottles, Vanessa putted them into Eden’s tank and he tried to take a bite of them once. But again, in the end he did not eat them. So we had to force feed him again in the afternoon.

Trying to find the well hidden egg clutch!

Leonie....our newest volunteer shares her journal.....

20^th of June – 24^th of June 2016

Monday

The normal work has to get done, like feeding Chichi and Eden, who is still not eating on his own unfortunately and so we have to force feed him almost everyday, cleaning the tanks and cleaning up the centre. Also the traps were checked and relocated as every day. Sadly, during the last couple weeks, the traps were always empty and no terrapins were caught, the same today.

After the normal routine was done, Rebecca, Imogen and I went for crab hunting to the beach. The idea behind that action, was to get some living and moving friends/food for Eden. After an hour we were totally soaked and exhausted and had a good bucket full of different kinds of crabs and also some Rockskippers. Unfortunately, the crabs were not that happy to be squeezed into the bucket and therefore started to fight. Two crabs were already dead, when we arrived back at the centre. Eden tried once to take a bite of the biggest crab in the tank, what the crab did not really like and so run away. Since then Eden never tried to get a crab or a Rockskipper again.

In the afternoon a big group of Chinese people came around to check out the centre.

Tuesday

Not much was going on on Tuesday. During the morning we did my first bird-survey. Basically we were walking around in the wetland and counted all the birds which appeared. I spotted a Seychelles Kestrel, these guys are not super common. Apart from that, we have not seen anything very interesting.

In the afternoon we were doing some office work.

Wednesday

Usual stuff in the morning but we also cleaned and scrubbed the tanks properly plus all the filter got washed out as well. Eden was still not eating by himself. Inga started to put out traps at the Grand Police-bay. Rebecca and I were helping her to set them up but unfortunately they were empty at the end of the day. It was fun anyway to get a ride in the back of the truck and to discover the beautiful natural wetland behind Police-bay.

In the afternoon we started the drone for Inga and she did her first drone flight. All the batteries from all the different machines were not charged though, therefor this was a short first practical exercise. Inga did a very good job and was super excited about it.

After that, we relocated the traps and went home.

Thursday

Thursday was a very easy and creative day. Vanessa was working in the north and Jonny was not feeling well. So Rebecca, Imogen and I were the chief-operator in the office. After the usual cleaning in the morning, we started to draw some nice pictures (wildlife related) to paint them later on on the wall outside the centre.  After the traps were in the right spots we started our creation.

In the late afternoon some Chinese visitors came around and had a quick look around, we could not really explain something to them as they are not speaking English very well.

After we finished our paintings we fed Eden and took the traps out.

Friday

After the tanks were clean and the centre was looking good as well, Vanessa took Imogen and me to two beaches where we did the beach-profiling, which has to be done every month. With the help of two poles, a tape measure and abney level the erosion of the beaches can get measured. During this time of the year, the south of Mahe is pretty rough and therefore, the beaches are very eroded and not much sand is left, compared to the other half of the year, when the northern part of the island got the rough weather. Some manager of the Banyan tree hotel are worried because the erosion, but looking at the data from the previous years, the beaches are not more eroded than the years before.

After lunch we started an other try to fly the drone. This time we went to grand police bay. Everything went fine and we did a great video. At least we thought we were making a great video, in the end nothing was recorded unfortunately, as we forgot to press the record-bottom.

There was a group of Russian visitors supposed to come around 2pm but they never showed up. So we left the office at 4pm and were happy to have weekend now.

Introducing Imogen!

On Monday I started my work experience at the rehabilitation centre. I wanted to work here for the two weeks because it’s something different to all the jobs that everyone else is doing. Everyone at the centre is very polite and has made me feel very welcome on my first day. The first few days have been interesting and I have learnt some new things from the jobs I have done, such as how to measure the salinity in the water as you need a specific amount for the animal in it which I did not know until I came here, and I have also learnt how to set traps to possibly catch terrapins, so far we have not caught any.

Enjoying a cup of tea before doing some serious tasks!

I find the jobs I have done so far interesting as they are active and involve going outside which is better than being in an office most of the time. I like the jobs particularly because you see different things everyday and learn something new.

My first job at the centre was to catch a few crabs as Eden a turtle currently recovering at the centre needs some living creatures in his tank, despite my fear of crabs I managed to catch a few and spot lots of them, I learned that when they are all put together they are very aggressive and will fight and end up killing each other, so there are only a few living ones left.

Yesterday one of the jobs that we did was bird monitoring, there was a lot of walking involved but we managed to spot many species of birds. During the three days that I have been here there are only two animals at the centre, one of them being a terrapin named Chichi that was domesticated and now that the person looking after it has left and gave him to the centre, where they are helping it get back to being independent and ready for the wild again. The other one is a turtle named Eden no more than a few years old,  he has a cut across the carapace and is in recovery also to be set free into the ocean once again.