Australia has been the best place by far that I have been to. The people there are great. It is so relaxed and everywhere you go there is something to do and has to offer you. I have made lasting friendships and would go back in a heartbeat. The best was being surrounded by people who love the same things you do. Our love and passion for animals. Being able to help with the rehabilitation for sea turtles was amazing. They are tough little suckers.

What they are doing there is truly amazing and being able to be apart of it even just for a few weeks was incredible. It has inspired me to go on with my career as a Vet Tech in the exotic and marine field.

It was such a good feeling when the turtles would eat more than the previous day when you were feeding them. Or the fact that one of the turtles (Olive) got released while we were there. Like I said I would go back in a heartbeat!

The Cairns Marine Center was my favorite part of the trip. It was so cool learning about what they do and why they do it. The collect from the reef but they have the strictest standards when it comes to it. They use non damaging nets on the reef to collect. They have strict packaging and shipping regulations as well.

While I was there they had 2 huge shipments of nurse sharks and a shipment of fish and corals. I was in the Coral section most of the time and I helped clean the tanks and feed the animals. They had eels, shrimp, lobsters, invertebrates, and so much coral. We literally meal prepped for them. We hand minced shrimp with garlic, mussels, fish and prawns. It was really neat that they added garlic but it helps with metabolism, external parasites and appetite stimulant. I didn’t know that. I was able to hand feed a friendly Spotted Moray Eel. I did witness an eel that wasn’t doing so well and the employee didn’t know what happened and had to euthanize it. They preformed a necropsy later that day so I don’t know what happened. I was talking with the managers wife Anetta and told her they should do an intern/extern ship and I would totally fly back for it. It was truly amazing. I recommended if they do this trip again to send students there again.

We went to the Cairns Turtle Rehab on Fitzroy Island. After work though we were able to snorkel and we just happened to run into this little guy. It is a Green Sea turtle. We learned that as they grow older they lose their scutes and just become more round in shape. They can live to be over 100 years old. In the wild there is this plant under water that they call turtle weed and that is mainly what they feed on along with squid, fish and jellies. We have seen turtle at the rehab center but it was quite remarkable to see them in the wild. They are very graceful swimmers but also extremely strong. Here in Australia they are home to 6 out of the 7 species of  turtles. I hope to see more when I’m out snorkeling again!