Volunteering with turtles 

The real work happens at night with beach patrols, designed to deter poachers. A simple task, but actually quite a hard one, especially if you are still battling jetlag. There were 2 patrol shifts: 8pm - 12am and 12am - 4am. It gets dark early in this part of the world, with the sun usually set by 6pm. That coupled with not much to do on the island made it hard to keep yourself awake for patrol. There were definitely a couple times where I felt I was sleepwalking along the beach.

Patrols were long, 4 hours walking along the sand up and down the beach accompanied by one of the workers. My feet would get tired, I’d get hot and sweaty. You were out no matter the weather, unless there was lightening. As part of the patrol duties, if we came across a nesting turtle, we collected the eggs to take them back to the protected hatchery. Turtles can lay up to 100 eggs, and they are heavy! So you may also be carrying heavy sacks of these along your patrol too. Of course, it was awesome to see turtles make their way up the coast, dig a hole to lay their eggs and then make their way back to sea. We wouldn’t stand close to watch them, so not to disturb them, and would maybe watch a little before carrying on our patrol and then coming back to dig up the eggs. Unfortunately, there were occasions where we saw turtle tracks come up from the sea, but not return. This was often evidence of poachers taking turtles, and on one occasion we saw drag marks towards the coastal forest, an ominous sign.

During one of our night patrols we also came face to face with armed poachers wielding machetes. I couldn’t understand the conversation between them and our patrol worker, but it was handled calmly. We had to hand over our bags of turtle eggs, as volunteer safety is paramount, but it was really disheartening to experience. It drove home the very real threat turtles and turtle conservation are facing.

Suffice to say, patrol duties should not be considered as easy. They involve hard work, physically and mentally. You can read about my patrol experiences here.

Other volunteer duties came during the day and involved working on local projects with the community, such as activities with the local children, and monitoring the protected hatchery which was monitored 24/7. The hatchery was based on the beach, so hatchery monitoring was really a beach day, relaxing in a hammock reading a book. We were lucky enough to see turtle hatches occur. Watching the little baby turtles dig their way out of the sand and stumble towards the sea. It is very important not to interfere with this process, not to touch them or use flash photography, as it can disorientate them during their vital trip to the water.