Friday, August 1, 2008

A Day on Tern

The work here on Tern is slowing down but there are still interesting experiences to keep the days active. I had the entrapment walk this morning at 7 a.m. The purpose of the walk is to look for animals that get trapped in broken down parts of the old sea wall or for turtle hatchlings that get headed in the wrong direction after they emerge from their nest in the sand. This morning I found 3 turtle hatchlings in one spot and 1 more in another location. I released them all on South Beach. They were all swimming strongly when I last saw them. This afternoon I had another opportunity to go with the seal researchers to Shark Island and Trig Island. On Trig I took part in an exchange of pups. For various reasons pups end up with females that are not their birth mother and the pups survival chances go down when this happens. For the most part I observed as Shawn distracted one female while Derek and Mark kidnapped that pup. They brought it to where Monica and I were waiting in a turtle pit and we baby sat the pup. It was still wrapped in the net that was used in it's capture. Derek, Shawn and Mark then repeated the pup capture with the other pair and carried it directly to it's birth mother. To complete the switch, Shawn, Monica and I carried the pup we were baby sitting back to its own mother. After a few minutes of observation the switch seemed to be a success. After 4 months here I'm still gaining knowledge and having new experiences.

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