Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Adventures of the PM1 Team

The PM1 team, which assembled Jack, Liz and Haley, was not the most fortunate collection of turtle pursuers. With not many turtles to call their own over the last few weeks, this teams fortunes was in need of a transformation. Jack felt he needed to give his team some much needed motivation, as several cups of sugary tea was not going to be enough. Out came the iPod and speakers, and Jack selected the most appropriate anthem, “Changes”. As the track introduced its punchy piano roll and Mr. Bowie stuttered his way through the chorus, PM1 was revitalised and ready to take on North Beach as well as the turtles that adorned it. With faces of intent, Jack, Haley and Liz wiped their mouths with the back of the hands, cleaned and dried the mugs, like good little night walkers, so all that was left was to salute the on looking kitchen dwellers.

Just as the team had thought they were fully aware what they were going through, probably another NRC, what happened next was not something they were expecting. Jack saw small parallel tracks heading up the beach onto an area of logs and debris. No descending tracks could be seen, and it was looking good! Jack followed the tracks as far as he could, but was left with no indication of where the turtle had headed. After a couple of minutes of moving silently through the vegetation, Jack was able to confirm the green turtles (Chelonia mydas) location, amongst some sparse trees, good triangulation spot he thought.


Jack made his way back to the anxious girls, to tell them the good news, that they could well be the first ones to work a green turtle this season, the whole team was truly excited, and eager to put their training to the test. The team set the kit up away from the egg loaded female, and awaited her to start digging the egg chamber. Liz was comfortable enough to start her first experience in midwifing, maria in hand and torch in mouth, Haley had her trees selected as she was ready to juggle tape measure, flagging tape, book and pencils. Oviposition was a long procedure, with rarely more than one egg being laid at a time, and Haley had concluded triangulation so quickly, she was even able to double check her measurements.

Once oviposition was accomplished, kit was put back, and then the tagging process was under taken. Haley lathered the tagging area with vanodine and the turtle was tagged and recorded. On with the measuring, Haley had the honours of straddling over the top of the turtle to get the CCW after successfully obtaining the CCL. Eventually, the body check was taken care of by both Haley and Liz, doing a thorough job and getting well involved, as Jack observed.


With kit all packed away and data double checked, the team waited and watched as the turtle shuffled her way back the surf, and as the waves lapped against her body the girls observed the reflection of the moon and stars in the sea, inspiring the name “Estrella”, for this individual female. The group embraced each other with a team hug, and the tracks were symbolised, so the team walked on, and all of those frustrating NRC’s were washed from memory.


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