The fourth update from Naomi (Student from University of Plymouth) who is still over in Grenada working with Ocean Spirits and St. George’s University. It sounds like she is having a fantastic time working hard but getting in time to also kick back and enjoy a beautiful part of the world.
Well done team! Its great hearing these updates and I look forward to hearing more!
Missed our previous updates? Make sure you catch up.
And learn more about the project here:
Friday 10th June – Thursday 16th June 2022:
Friday was a little different this week, as it was the birthday of one of the volunteers, so we all spent the day on a nearby island as a treat. The day was spent walking the perimeter of the island, birdwatching, snorkelling, reading, sunbathing, and eating a delicious meal of ‘Oil Down’ (Grenada’s national dish) kindly cooked for us by a few of the local guys – a relaxing day all round. On Saturday, we said goodbye to one of the volunteers and later greeted five new arrivals in the evening, which was followed by a Sea Turtle Biology training session from Kate on Sunday morning. Good weather on Tuesday meant that we were able to make it out for another in-water day, during which we collected data on another 7 turtles (including our first 2 adult male hawksbills of the season). Once we got back from the boat, I then ran through our blood sample centrifugation protocol with Kate. On Wednesday, our first small batch of camping supplies arrived at SGU, which warranted a trip to the south of the island. After collecting this from Dave, we gave him the blood samples we have collected so far so he could store them in the SGU lab, and we then visited various stores throughout St. George’s to purchase some other camping supplies – one step closer to making it out to the remote island! Free time this week was spent on a leatherback night patrol, exploring Levera lake which is surrounded by mangroves, watching a local football match, and visiting the Belmont chocolate plantation (very educational and very tasty chocolate!).