Tonight we went turtle watching with Allison, one of the members of the board of directors for the EAG. The kids missed Donald and were disappointed that he wasn’t going to be there, but they very much enjoyed Allison’s good nature and well informed observations as well. The researchers who led us through the tour were part of the Jumby Bay Hawksbill Project. Domenic, one of the researchers, was from the Bordeaux region in France. Domenichad studied in the UK and had the most interesting mix of British and French accents. Kate, another researcher, had studied in Conneticut. Both were great fun to hang out with. The beach that night was breezy, warm and completely bug free. The stars in the sky were stunningly dense. We managed to see one Hawksbill turtle about to begin the process of laying its eggs. When it actually starts laying it goes into a trance and will not be disturbed by flash photography. Before then it is much more sensitive to its surroundings. Our boat came and we had to go before the turtle got to a stage of the process that would allow us to take pictures without disturbing it. But no one minded. The memories were enough.
Eric and Anisa had never taken a boat ride at night. It was an opportunity to horse around.
In order to determine the number of hatched eggs Dominic has to dig up the nests that have already hatched.
- Eric was fascinated by the whole process. Of course the autopsies of the unhatched turtle eggs might have been a little shocking for him.
- Some eggs don’t hatch. The research team keeps track of the number of nests and their yields of hatched eggs.
- The unhatched eggs could easily be distinguished. They were the ones that were intact.
Kate took notes detailing the count of hatched eggs, unhatched eggs, and the results of analyzing the eggs that didn't hatch.
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