Ready For Evening Beach Patrol!
While you are all sound asleep, we are gearing up for our evening walks on the beach. Both of us have had the opportunity to count the eggs and take measurements of nesting females. Considering that we are doing all of this in the dead of night, a headlamp comes in quite handy- it may look funny, but without it I don't think we could get a very accurate egg count! Since turtles are sensitive to the light, we need a red filter, the red light is not so disturbing to the turtles. You may also have noticed the matching T-shirts, this is how the rangers recognize us as part of the patrol team. Well we are off to our nightly patrols. Sweat Dreams!Take a moment to read this interesting article from National Geographic.
It's about a record 647 day long journey made by a critically endangered leatherback. The very species that we are working with here in Costa Rica.
posted by Fiona O'Doherty & Jennifer Seshadri @ 8:20 PM
11 Comments:
What are you wearing on your heads. Are they lights to see in the dark
Ms. O'Doherty and Ms. Seshadri that is really cool i hope i can hear more about it! Have fun on your walk on the beach!
Hi Fiona and Jen! Greetings from southern California! I went on the MMT website and read that you were on an expedition in Costa Rica. How cool! The photos and info are great. You must be having a fantastic experience. Love the headlamps and matching shirts! Is this the first time either of you have been to Costa Rica? Life in LA is good and I'm teaching K-3 science. Oh, Fiona, I'm doing the cow eye dissection with my students next week. Any chance you can stop in LA before going back to NYC?! =) Jen, hope the school year is going well! Enjoy the rest of your stay and safe travels!
Cheers,
Ros Won
PS - Hi to MMT teachers and students!
Hi Ms Seshadri,
We really enjoyed our conversation with you on Monday. Thanks for accommodating our snow delay and calling us later. The kids are so exited to learn more about leatherbacks. We now have a beautiful bulletin board display of their art work of the sea turtles. One more question a student didn't get to ask you: Have you seen any injured leatherbacks, hurt flippers etc? We saw a photo of one like that being repaired.
Again, you gave us such good answers and so much time. We really are grateful for all your attention!
Mrs. Purn's second graders
You both look very professional and I look forward to your modeling and demonstrating your techniques at assemblies and meetings when you get back.
Susan J
Hi Ms. O'Dherty,
I was wondering, how heavy are the baby leatherbacks?
Hope your having fun :)
-Mariel
Hi Ros
What a nice surprise to hear from you. This has been an amazing experience - I don't even know where to begin. I'm just sad that this is our last day. I just got an email asking if I'd help again with the cow dissection - I just have to check my schedule and see if it fits. I'm afraid it's straight back to NYC tomorrow - I think they were afaid we may not come back!! Will email you more later - I have a live video conference with one of my classes in 15 minutes and need to get ready for it. Love fiona
Hi Mariel,
Hope all is well and thanks for the question. I actually had a chance to weight and measure baby hatchlings a few nights ago when I was on hatchery duy. The average weight was a bout 50 grams - I'm going to let you convert that to ounces!
Hi Ms. O'D!!
I was just wondering how the nesting numbers vary between the species in Costa Rica? Are there any big differences?
See you Monday...
Nicole
Hi Nicole - 3 different species of sea turtles nest in Costa Rica - the leatherback, the green turtle and the Olive's Ridley. We only worked with the leatherbacks - we did see the other 2 types, but generally they nest in other beaches.
i really like your headlights!
ariana
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