May 9 and 10, 2014

These two days were so very exciting! We got off to a great start, netting a turtle as soon as we cast it out. It was a female Green Sea Turtle (scientific name: Chelonia mydas), and while I thought she looked rather large, she was relatively small as far as turtles go according to our research leaders. She was approximately 60cm across, and roughly 70cm long. She was beautiful!

When turtles were caught, we would bring them to shore, measure their carapace (top of shell) across and length, as well as their plasteron (underneath part of shell). We then would record their ID tags on their front flippers (or tag them if they hadn’t been or had lost their previous tags), determine their sex, and take tissue samples.

Throughout the two days, we caught a total of 8 turtles. We caught 7 Green Sea Turtles and a Hawksbill Sea Turtle (scientific name: Eretmochelys imbricata), who came back to the hospital with us for the night. We removed parasites from her before releasing her the following afternoon. It was two days full of awesome experiences!