Naomi arrived safely at Grenada’s Maurice Bishop International Airport on
Saturday 21st May, primed and ready to start her research with support of
Ocean Spirits, University of Plymouth and St. Georges University (SGU) in
Grenada. 

Naomi spent the first few days staying at St George’s University Campus, and
after settling in started being trained by her SGU supervisor Dave,
on blood collection  methodology as well as DNA extraction and quantification. This
allowed her to adapt existing protocols and start working independently on
processing Turtle DNA samples which were collected by Ocean Spirits during the 2021 OMEF funded pilot project during the 2021 season.
This work is already getting some great results! 

On Friday (27th) Naomi made her journey up to the north of the island to
formally meet the Ocean Spirits team in person, this is where she will be
spending most her time whilst she is out in Grenada. 

There certainly promises to be some fantastic times ahead for Naomi and the
rest of the team and we are looking forward to sharing more with you and
keeping everyone up to date on this project. Without everyone’s support this
would not have been possible so I hope you all enjoy following along with
this project and watching our charity grow. 

Links to University of Plymouth Article on the project: International project aims to understand and protect endangered sea turtles – University of Plymouth

Find out more about Naomi here: Naomi Westlake: a life beneath the surface – University of Plymouth

Link to Ocean Spirits: www.oceanspirits.org