Day 6: A fishy start

Today 6 of us (Boots, Anna Wooten, Nicole Scott, Shannon, Jess and Anna Duh) woke up early to get to the hospital by 7:00 am to help Judy and her team cut up the fish and squid for the turtles breakfast. Then we all jumped in to feed the turtles. 

Jess, Anna W. and Michelle

Turtle Breakfast

Ben, Mitch, Nicole Scott and Anna Day worked in sea turtle sick bay while the rest of us fed the turtles in sea turtle bay and cleaned their tanks.  All in all a typical great day at the turtle hospital.  As always, the volunteers were AWESOME.  Michelle really liked my “fear the turtles” shirt and so I (Boots) literally gave her the shirt off my back (it was a freebee I had received, so no biggy).  When we were mostly done—except for isolation—the early crew headed home for lunch, followed by the late crew approximately 20 minutes later.  Then everyone went back to the hospital for the all coveted time to take pictures with the turtles.  Lots and lots of pictures, all approved by Jean.  

Mercer (Zach's favorite)

  

Jess and Jean

Boots having a pow-wow with mama turtle October

We went to the classroom to learn about the beach watch program run by the Topsail Turtle Project and hear more wonderful stories from Jean.

Can’t wait until she writes and publishes her book.

I (Anna Day) always like working in sea turtle sick bay- I never get tired of watching the turtles nibbling their food or helping the volunteers bathe turtles. It was interesting to listen to Jean’s description of the tracks that turtles leave in the sand when they go to lay their eggs. According to Jean, green sea turtles use both front flippers simultaneously to move forward on the sand, while loggerheads alternate between using their left and their right flipper to move forward on the sand. Jean also told us about the amount of care involved in the beach watch program, including how volunteers need to wear clothing that blends in with the environment and is not bright in order to prevent hatchlings from moving towards them instead of the sea.

After we learned about the beach watch program, we practiced our presentations about different turtle-related topics in front of Jean. Although some of us had been nervous about whether our presentations would meet Jean’s high standards, we were happy to hear that Jean was impressed by our presentations. After practicing today, presenting to the kids should not be a problem!

When we got back to the house, we enjoyed an excellent dinner of burgers with tomatoes, lettuce, beans, fries prepared by Zach and Ben, as well as kale prepared by Anna W. Everyone, including Zach, ate some kale. Shannon K. and Nicole M. cleaned up, which was not an easy task.

After clean-up triple chocolate cake with cream cheese icing from a local bakery was enjoyed by all. Reflection was a lively affair with lots of laughter, sharing and thoughtful reflection on becoming and active citizen—something to aspire to.

 

 Tomorrow we are going to present to the kids and go out for dinner at Sears Landing with Jean Can’t wait!