tortugas marinas

I´ve been learning a lot and kept busy at Karúmbe. The other day we did a censo to Punto del Diablo… 18km from La Coranilla! The idea is to walk a long span of beach (a very long span of beach) taking note of any dead or stranded turtles (rarely stranded, usually dead). We didn´t find any turtles but we did find a dead ¨lobo del mar¨ (similar to a sea lion but it´s actually a little different and they call it a sea wolf). It was very fresh and even though it´s kind of gross, it was cool to be able to be so close and see it.

Since we were walking to Punta del Diablo the coordinators decided that our group would camp in Punta del Diablo in order to get up first thing in the morning to do a capture on Playa Grande near Punta del Diablo. It was a fun adventure, though exhausting! We set up camp in the sand duns and cliffs right on the beach! It was pretty neat to be the first people on the beach early in the morning!

Another interesting experience was assisting a turtle autopsy. I wasn´t really sure how I would react but it was actually pretty interesting. We took specimens so that a cause of death might be able to be determined later by scientist in Montevideo. It wasn´t clear to us exactly what was the cause of death. The poor turtle was very skinny, but seamed to have been eating. We found plastics in it´s stomach, but not enough that it would have caused death.

Though some of what we are doing isn´t glamorous, it´s been educational. Karúmbe also does a lot of educational awareness. The other day we set up on the beach with a sea turtle, played games with the kids, taught people about green turtles, and at the end of the day released the turtle back into the ocean! The kids thought it was really cool, the energy was great and everyone was excited: the volunteers, coordinators, and our beach audience! It felt good to send a turtle back out into the sea and teach people in the process!