This is such an amazing experience!! Last night a veterinarian from the capitol of Costa Rica, San Jose, came in to spend a few days with us. This evening we had an amazing chat as she did a power point presentation on sea turtle anatomy (these are the things I REALLY wanted to learn on this trip)! There are so many differences in a sea turtles’ anatomy (and all reptiles for that matter) than the other mammals that I have worked with and learned from. For example, sea turtles have NO diaphragm. I cannot wait for tomorrow and the following day when we will be learning and sea turtle physiology, common medical problems and specific case studies…also I am beyond excited to learn where to draw blood from on a turtle since I am nerdy and love to know those kinds of “techy” things!!

Today we got to work on 4 more turtles! As soon as we dropped the net we caught a beautiful female Green sea turtle! A little while later we caught giant female Green – she was 100+ cm and weighed at least 350lbs – that was a challenge for us to carry and get to shore…but we did it! It took 8 of us just to get her from the boat to shore and she was very strong…it was a great learning experience because it showed us that while they are docile creatures their strength can make things more difficult for us, making it even more important that we keep our “calm hats” on so not to raise their stress level.

At the end of the day while we were pulling in the net, there was  a smaller turtle in the net and lucky us it was an adult female Hawksbill. We brought her back to the center with us in the boat for a 24 hour fresh water treatment to kill a common parasite found in Hawksbill. It was a great day 🙂

Today was “turtle day”… and I wish every day was “turtle day”!

We dropped the net and it all began! 4 turtles in 5 hours – all female greens, so amazing!
They are such majestic, peaceful creatures, yet so strong and courageous. Poor turtles though…there are endless potholes in their graceful road and it’s all our fault. Global warming, fishing accidents, poaching…we are their biggest threat and it makes me so sad.

But what a wonderful experience it was to be able to try and give back a little to them by collecting data and research! Some cool facts I learned: the top of the shell is called the “carapace”, the bottom side is the “plastron” and their genital area or tail is called the “cloaca”.  Another interesting fact is the temperature of the water affects their sex determination: if the water temperature is below 82.4 degrees it will be male, above 84.5, it will be female, and the perfect range of a 50/50 chance is 82.5-84.4.