A few panoramic pictures from the last evening in the research station.

turtle satellite tracking

These screenshot show the progress of the turtle with the satellite tag. It will be interesting to follow this turtle throughout the year. It is a green turtle, which is supposed to move around more than the hawksbill.

amazing captures

Today I was on the capture boat and it was the most amazing day. It started with one of our group of volunteers, Peter, capturing a turtle by himself. This is no easy feat, he had to free dive to about 20 feet, grab the turtle and bring it to the surface.

In total we captured 6 turtles, the last one being the most amazing. There was a couple of loggerhead turtles, probably mating. These animals are huge. The head of the male was bigger than a person's. Only the smaller female could be brought aboard and that was not easy. It weighed 125 pounds. It was a beautiful turtle. I do have pictures but they will have to wait for a better internet connection for download.


I got to release one of the turtles back in the water, a 30 kilogram Hawksbill. Also got to help the vets with measurements and collection of parasite samples, and collection of blood samples. Controlling the huge turtle while it was measured and sampled required someone to actually sit on it, in addition to the towel over the eyes. A bite from this turtle could take a person's hand.

This was the end of the survey. We finished all segments and had many more sightings than last year, we will get a summary soon.

Now we have the afternoon to relax. Some of us will do some last minute snorkeling before we return the rental equipment.

This is the kind of wildlife you do not want to step on at night. That's why you need a flashlight.

These land crabs are everywhere in the island. They live in holes underground. They feed on anything and mostly fight among themselves. They are most active at night.

We just got an update from the satellite tag tracking, the were several location transmissions during the day. The transmitter has water sensors that allow it to know when it can transmit. Since it is not necessary to know exactly all the locations during the day it has been configured to transmit only a few times a day, hopefully for many days.

We may be able to keep track of this turtle by ourselves. Lets hope so.

Just a regular day today. Dive in the morning, again close to the edge. Saw a beautiful lobster. In the afternoon we did two more segments, spotted some turtles and captured a few. We did the exams, blood work, etc.

The are two segments left for tomorrow, then there is a party and we leave on Saturday.

During the survey I saw another beautiful eagle ray with the bright spots in the back, they are so majestic in the water.

small things can make you very happy

Like finding a forgotten piece of 70% chocolate in your backpack, yummy :-)

diving

In the afternoon some of us went for a dive. It was amazing. The atoll is like a mesa in the water. Surrounding it there is a shelf of about 120 feet after which depth goes to 2000 feet. Diving we got to the edge and looked down. It is amazingly scary. On one side you have coral and trapped sand, on the other a deep blue hole that goes deep forever in a vertical drop. We are not talking gradual here, it is a steep almost vertical drop.

We also saw some interesting fish like a ray and a big grouper. Some of the sponges and corals in the depth are different. For example, we saw a sponge that forms a tube about 4 feet diameter with little fish living inside it.

Here I am measuring the amount of protein in plasma using a refractometer. it turns out that some blood tests can be done the same way as humans, but others work differently. For example, non mammals have nucleus in their red blood cells, do the regular automated counting systems do not work.

Lots of work being done after the surveys in the lab setup in the office of the station.

Just when I was starting to get used to the routine we got an adventurous day. We had to survey two segments this morning and two in the afternoon, one more than usual because yesterday we used the afternoon for the satellite tagging. Therefore we started the work at 8 and headed toward the first segment. This was located on the east side of the atoll, which is the side that gets the waves from the open ocean. Those waves are tough to ride on a small boat.

Waves are about six to eight feet high, and when the boat travels fast you feel very well each of them. The ride took about an hour and was one of the most uncomfortable rides I've been in.

When we finally got there and stated the survey it was very difficult for the snorkelers. Some waves would break I've you, others moved you off course. The up and down motion hid the swimmers lineup and the shore. It was frustrating and tiring to swim like that for an hour.

Luckily we saw several turtles. At this time we have seen more than last year for the whole week, so this is a good year. We have also captured several so there will be good data.

I was lucky to swim just on top of a cute little turtle of about 12 inches long. It was very pretty. I also saw the amazing job the locals do when capturing the turtle. I was observing from the side and the turtle was about 50 feet deep. This guy went in, free diving vertically and got to the turtle, which this time escaped, but just getting to the turtle was incredible. I would not have believed this was possible.

With the rough seas many people felt sick and even some of the locals were taking Dramamine. Luckily I did only feel the bumps but had no Sea sickness at all.

We came back to the station with samples from four turtles. I helped the veterinarians with the sorting of the samples and some of the blood work. Looked at red and white cells through the microscope. There is a lot of behind the scenes work that need to be done in the field to purpose the samples and also get some results that require immediate processing.

This is the.  " drive in "  bar where we celebrated the success with the turtles.

The turtle got its tag, was released in the location it was captured, the sensor started working with contact with water and the first location was transmitted.

The team is programming and preparing the satellite tag to be attached to the back of the turtle. It will then periodically transmit the location for two to three years.

Turtle is calm during the process. Covering the eyes gives it a sense of security. The needle used to draw blood is thin and the turtle did not seem to react to it. Tools f for measuring length and weight are heavy duty.

The vet is collecting critters off the skin of the turtle. These are then analyzed and we can get a clue of where the turtle has been.

Several turtles captured ( and released ) will now try to post pictures of the scientific process of measuring, tagging, drawing blood, etc.

If the last photo uploads it will show the Hawksbill turtle next to the towel that is covering the green turtle about to get a satellite tag.

reef surveys

This afternoon a group of us spent two hours in the water learning to identify different kinds of corals and differentiate them from sponges. Once we learn to identify the species we could do surveys. A survey consists of a detailed record of the observed specimens along a 100 feet line and a width of three feet on each side of it.

The reefs here have a wide variety of corals and they are in pretty good shape. Most of them are healthy and colourful and there is also a variety of small and medium fish around the coral.

There is one invasive species, the lion fish. We spotted three of them and our guide was able to spear one of them. Quite a scary fish. It was introduced by careless pet owners and now it is doing serious damage to the local small fish population, so hunting them is encouraged.

Dinner will be served soon and then we have a talk by one of the veterinarians that are here to assess the health of the turtles.

self sufficient

The station is very self sufficient. It has solar panels. Collected rain water and self composting bathrooms. Here is a picture of the bathroom.

first two segments

It seems that pictures will have to wait for faster internet connection.

This morning we went out for the first two segments of the turtle census. Each segment lasts about an hour. We got eight people in the water about thirty feet apart and in a line swimming parallel to the edge of the ref trying to spot turtles. Visibility was great. About 200 feet. I was in water about 15 feet deep. 3 turtles were spotted, all in the deeper side of the line.

On the second segment I was lucky spotting two turtles, one hawkbill at the beginning and aloggerhead at the end. On the middle I also saw a5 foot shark and three rays. One was a beautiful eagle ray that Q's swimming just below me for a couple of minutes. It's back was spotted with shiny spots.

It is not easy to be swimming for so long, but it's very rewarding to see the turtles and to enable their population study. Unfortunately we could not capture any of them. They swim very fast. I swan after the second one and could not keep up with it.

 the afternoon the group that snorkeled in the morning will go do a reef survey.

Sun and bugs are the main problems. Trying to keep in the shade. I wish I had long pants to swim with.

This is the room I share with Peter. I'm in the lower bed. The view is gorgeous and you constantly hear the waves. Luckily there is a breeze in the evening so it does not feel too hot.

Here you see a hermit crab and the nice looking cabins on the resort in the next island over. They look nice from the distance but they are really shabby in the inside.

A pretty remote place

This is quite a remote place. About forty kilometers from the mainland, on the way here in the boat for a long time we did not see any land. Then we arrived to the atoll and the c color of the water changed as we entered the lagoon.

The research station is on an island that formed from corals. Trees are mainly mangrove and some other taller trees. There are lots of hermit crabs and some huge land crabs. Frigate birds, pelicans and ospreys.

The feeling is of being in a very remote place.

Water is just what is collected from rain. Food is good but simple. The people from WCS and the fisheries are excellent and we just had a thorough explanation of what we will be doing. Turns out it is not easy to catch or even spot a turtle.

Tomorrow I'm in the first snorkeling group. Hopefully we will spot and catch some.

Dangriga to Glover's Reef

Dangriga's sunrise woke me up at 5:45, so I took a bike which I thought was for guest use (it wasn't) and went into town. It is a small town and most of the houses reflect modest existence. There are a few stores, police station, supermarket, a church and a masonic temple.

After breakfast we took a two hour boat ride to the island. It is beautiful, in the middle of the reef. Pictures will come a bit later.

We got our snorkeling and diving equipment and tried it out. Lots of fish. Got some instruction on to the turtle census techniques which we will start using tomorrow.

Traveling to Belize, arriving in Dangriga

Today was pretty much just traveling to Belize, starting with a sunrise flight to Dallas.

The flight into Belize was late one hour, but otherwise uneventful. Then onto a small plane, I mean one propeller plane to Dangriga where we are staying till tomorrow when the boat will come pick us up.

Maybe this video will give an idea of the feeling.

The "resort" is nice, but far from luxury. Nice view of the warm Sea.

One unexpected surprise is that the local beer is really good and inexpensive.

Tomorrow we start the trip for real.

Leaving for Belize tomorrow

I'm leaving for Belize tomorrow. Taking the 6am flight to Dallas and continuing to Belize City from there. Finally taking a small plane from Belize City to the town of Dangriga.

The trip is organized by the Wildlife Conservation Society, which has been around for more than 100 years and is based in New York and affiliated with the Bronx Zoo. We are a group composed mostly of people from Google.

The purpose of the trip is to participate in the annual census of turtles in the Glover's Reef Atoll. We will be snorkeling and diving in the area, helping identify, count, capture-and-release, weigh, examine and tag the turtles. We will also take part in Coral Reef surveys.

They have promised us there will be time to relax and explore the area, and we should have good internet access, so I will be posting here photo updates.

Meanwhile here is a picture from last weekend at Mission Peak, in Fremont, CA, let this be the "before" picture.