Saturday May 9, 2015 was our first turtle day. Ma’ma Elena had cooked breakfast for us, which consisted of rice and black beans, scrambled eggs and some kind of meat that looked and tasted like hotdog. She brought out our prepared lunches and sent us on our way down to the water to get on the boats. Navid was driving the boat that had the nets, Tiffi (the veterinarian), and Kaly (the research assistant). Only 3 more people could get on this boat so it was Rob, Jess and I, everyone else got on the other boat.

We reached our destination 15 minutes from the cabinas, there we let out the nets. After the nets were set we grabbed snorkel/masks and jumped in the water to make sure there were no knots. Once the nets were checked we loaded back onto the boats and went to the shore not even 10 minutes of us being back on shore we were all loading up again to go out and witness our first turtle being hoisted in. It was a male hawksbill, that had been caught before, he had a transmitter plastered on his shell. so the girls got him in the boat and secured him then we went back to shore. The turtle weighed in at 140 lbs. so they needed help getting him from the boat to the shore. On the beach we collected samples such as blood, check for tag numbers, tissue sample from the neck and back flipper, and flushing of the esophagus. So we finished up with the samples in 30 minutes but had Navid go back to the cabinas and search for a saw to cut the transmitter off the shell because the antenna had broken off. So the total time the turtle was out of the water was almost 2 hours, which is way to much but we kept pouring water on him and tried to keep him comfortable. Finally we were able to release him back to the water.