Sailor and Sarah here! Our group spent the last week volunteering at a permaculture farm called CIRENAS. Due to a recent donation, they were able to build a hatchery and start up a turtle conservation project which we had the opportunity to work on. Our roles included exhuming nests that had already hatched, recording data and patrolling the beach. Most of the group took the opportunity to take a shift at least one night of the week along with a volunteer from the project. Sailor, Asia, Claudia (one of the volunteers and our new friend) and I took a shift patrolling on Thursday night. It was amazing!! Right when we got there, there was a nest that had just hatched which we counted and then released. Then we began patrolling, and although we didn’t encounter a momma turtle, we did find a shark on the beach.
After patrolling, we spent a few hours listening to music, talking laughing with Claudia, watching the stars over the water, and the bioluminescence rolling in with the waves, then we decided to get a few hours of sleep. We woke up (a little later than planned) to discover a newly hatched nest which we counted and released. By the time we went back for breakfast we had released 171 baby turtles! It was a very rewarding and exciting experience.
As a whole, the group learned a lot about how important sea turtles are to the environment and what big impact small changes we can make in our daily lives have on their survival. We loved our time at CIRENAS and hope to return some day!
