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Yesterday afternoon, as we were all out for a beach cleanup, we spotted Pablo running up the beach. “Babies!”, he called out as he got closer. The first lot of hatchlings for the season had just started to emerge out of their nest. We headed for the hatchery where two rather sleepy baby leatherback turtles had crawled out of their nest and a third one was poking its head out of the sand. It wasn’t until later at night, however, that the full nest started to emerge. At around 18:30, 24 baby turtles were busy flapping their flippers around. We all gathered at the hatchery and took turns helping out, weighing and measuring a subsample of 15 of the 24 hatchlings before it was time to release them all on the beach and watch them head for sea. Their jerky movements made them look like wound-up toys!
A couple of hours later a second, much larger, nest emerged and Alan, Janet and Ida, who were on hatchery duty, processed another 63 baby turtles. Just when we thought things had calmed down, three turtles poked their heads out of a third nest whilst Carol was on the early morning shift. But as a result of the hot daytime sun, the hatchlings in the third nest stopped emerging, instead waiting for cooler nighttime temperatures. We processed and released the three that had already emerged and watched them struggle to the sea (the process of letting them crawl over the beach is essential for imprinting the beach’s location into their brains). “It makes all the hard work worthwhile,” exclaimed Carol.
In the afternoon Magali excavated the two nests that had fully hatched. There were a couple of stragglers at the bottom that were released and all the hatched and unhatched eggs were removed and examined individually and their stage of development recorded. Then all were buried deep in the sand to avoid attracting predators.
Now we are all waiting for the third nest to fully emerge.
The team are acclimatising to the heat and the night-time schedule. It’s always a treat when you meet a turtle in full swing, just minutes after leaving the research base, as happened to the first patrol the other night. The eggs were collected and taken to the hatchery where Carol and Sheila, battling with the biblical plague of crabs heading on land, also to lay their eggs, duly dug the chamber and relocated the clutch.
On the way back down the beach another turtle was discovered, demonstrating signs of camouflaging her nest, meaning that she had already laid, and was preparing to head back to sea. There were no signs of poaching activity, no sticks in the sand, no bare-foot prints, so the team, Irmtraut, Nicole and Catherine, attempted to dig up the eggs, but to no avail. As Irmtraut rightly said, “It’s a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack!”
The next morning, we decided to enlist the help of Hernan, a once poacher, now guide with LAST, and for 30 minutes he poked around with a metal rod trying to find the nest. It was obvious that even for the professionals, this was not an easy job! The turtle had camouflaged her nest so well that we thought it was a lost cause until suddenly the rod went down with ease. He dug furiously until there they were, a cavern of white spheres.
Hernan finding the nest
Elated, Magali extracted the nest and then Janet and Ida helped to relocate it into the hatchery. It was a great sense of achievement, not only to have evaded the poachers, but to know that the nest is now safe from the elements too.
Magali extracting the eggsJanet placing the eggs into a nest in the hatcheryBagged eggs
However, last night the poachers broke the unwritten code of conduct for the first time since its inception a few years ago. The agreement is basically peaceful coexistance and that whoever gets to a turtle first has the “rights” over the nest. Last night a team were with a turtle who was laying facing the sea. They collected the eggs and placed them in their bag a metre or so away, whilst they took the rest of the data. Suddenly, Jenny heard the crack of a branch and when she turned around, a shadowy figure disappeared into the night with the egg bag! We were all obviously shocked to hear of such a breach, and a formal complaint will be lodged with the coast guard and the police. Magali is confident, though, that the name of the poacher will come out amongst the community (which only numbers 35 people) within a couple of days, and that community will take appropriate action for fear of creating a rift between themselves and LAST – no one, not even the poachers want to disrupt the current system of tolerance.
You may ask why we do not report poachers every time and why this tolerance. The answer is simple. There is no or very little law enforcement in this area, so it’s just us and the community, some of whom are poachers. The alternative to peaceful tolerance would be aggressive squabbling, which would get us nowhere fast. Without the cooperation of the community, we would have no chance to change hearts and minds away from a poaching culture. And agressive confrontation on pitch dark beaches in the middle of the night is not what we want either, nor are the poachers “bad” people. In this community of severe poverty, little education, few opportunities and some alcohol and drug-related problems too, our “poaching” may be their subsistance. We accept this and work hard to turn poachers into patrol leaders and provide alternative means of income, such as employing people from the community as patrol leaders, cooks, service providers or encouraging them to grow food that can be sold to the research station or making souvenirs for volunteers. Without us, poaching would be 100%. With us around it is between 60% and 35%, depending on the year. It’s a long game and, with the help of our volunteers, we’re in for the long haul, not futile, short-lived fights on the beaches.
You may have thought we had sunk without a trace, but fear not, we are back after a brief radio silence on the blog front. And what a final few days it has been to conclude the 13th year for Biosphere Expeditions in the Azores.
I am not superstitious, but our third group of volunteers seem to have had luck on their side. After the double blue whales from the first day at sea, they scored humpback whales on day two – our first records of this species for 2016. One of the three humpbacks recorded was first identified in the Azores on March 8th of this year, so it has been hanging around for a while, but just playing hard to find.
Our next day brought another epic encounter with sperm whales, this time south of Faial, and no sooner did one fluke and disappear to the depths, another appeared to the chorus of ‘blow’. The photos identified at least 14 different individuals, including one of Lisa’s favourites; whale number 19. This female was first recorded in 1987 and has now been identified at least 10 times in the Azores over the past 29 years, underlining the great value of long-term data sets in illustrating the importance of the Azores for certain cetacean species.
The afternoon brought more encounters with bottlenose dolphins, who were also observed ‘hassling’ the sperm whales at the surface. The latter responded in there own aromatic way, and inhaling the smell of whale pooh is perhaps something none of us are keen to repeat!
After a day’s break on shore we returned to the seas, and this was just another ‘ordinary’ day, if such a thing exists, of only baleen whales. It does give me the chance to highlight some of our other survey targets, which I have hardly had chance to mention – the seabirds and turtles. And let me not forget our close encounters with sunfish and sharks circling the boat – not every fin we see belongs to a cetacean! All contribute to clarify the ‘health’ of these waters.
Our fifth day brought diversity, and a magnificent seven cetacean species, with multiple encounters with fin and blue whales, social sperm whales that just wouldn’t show their flukes, and a chance discovery of yet another humpback whale. Common, bottlenose and striped dolphins also featured, but attempts to get to a group of false killer whales were thwarted by too many random encounters with baleen whales – yes we got stuck in traffic, whale traffic!
Our last day at sea for 2016 saw us head north out of the harbour, for the first time this year. Sometimes it pays to do something different. Not only did we find more fin whales, and one with a calf that circled the boat, we also observed five different species of dolphins in one day including striped (for a fifth day) and the false killer whales that had evaded us earlier. Personally speaking, it is great to achieve something new and unexpected, and a fine way to end our fieldwork for 2016.
I hoped the variety of sightings would match the diversity of our group, and we weren’t disappointed. I haven’t even had chance to tell you about fluking blue whales, breaching humpbacks and the jumping acrobatics of the striped dolphins. Another time…..
But let me say huge thanks to our hosts at Banana Manor (Jim, Claudia and Tiago), to our skipper (Gyro) and the support team at Norberto Divers, and of course to Lisa for all her scientific input, direction and all-round cetacean knowledge that guides the project. Final thanks of course go to all our hard-working volunteers.
Your collective efforts have enabled a staggering level of data collection. Which will of course be analysed and published in the expedition report. But in summary, we have recorded (at least) 10 different cetacean species, from over 220 encounters, recording in excess of 1500 ‘individuals’. Not bad for a month’s work.
The team are now all together in Pacuare Field Station and the first two days of briefings and instruction have been completed. To patrol the beach at night everyone has to undergo practical training to learn how to measure and tag a turtle, collect the eggs, record all the data correctly, and finally how to transport and then relocate the eggs in the hatchery. This last part involves digging a hole 75 cm in depth, then hollowing out a 3 5cm diameter egg chamber at the bottom with your hand, lying face down in the black volcanic sand whilst being bitten by sand-flies! However, all the training came to good use when last night at 23:15 Sheila and Keiner’s team, led by Magali, our scientist, came across a leahterbacke in sector A, 2.5 km down the beach from the station. Sending a hopeful poacher on his way, the team watched her crawl up the beach, dig her body pit and Sheila played the role of midwife, collecting the eggs in a large plastic bag, withdrawing the bag just in time, before the turtle began to fill in the nest. Keiner took the biometric data and Magali tagged her. Theresa was on hatchery duty from midnight until 06:00 and so had the honour of digging her first nest in the hatchery, depositing the eggs that will be safely guarded around the clock for the next 60 – 70 days until they hatch.
Not all patrols are as fruitful and our first night on the beach was a hot and sweaty in darkness, where the only turtle we encountered had already been commandeered by a poacher. The situation here is such that whoever reaches the turtle first, whether it be patrol or poacher, has immediate ‘rights’ over the turtle and its eggs without confrontation. The poaching situation is a real issue with 60% of the eggs taken by poachers last year. This year the tally is better so far with the robbed nests at 55 and the saved nests at 66. We are all beginning to understand that what we are doing here is real, direct conservation in action, and that without our presence and the ongoing work of our project partners LAST (Latin American Sea Turtles), 100% of the nests would be robbed and a whole generation of leatherbacks wiped out – a sobering thought for the team now determined to make the most of their time in this remote but biodiverse stretch of nesting habitat. In Sheila’s words, “it’s really uncomfortable to lie behind a turtle like that for 20 minutes. The thing that keeps you going is that you’ve got to stay there – it feels really important for the world that you keep this bag there!”
Hello, my name is Ida Vincent and I am being trained to become an expedition leader, learning ropes from both Matthias and Catherine.
We have now all arrived in San Jose. Matthias and I arrived two days ago; I from Seattle and Matthias with very sore legs from running the London Marathon on Sunday. Catherine joined us last night, also from London.
This morning we will continue our journey first by bus to Baatan and then on to Pacuare via boat.
Matthias and I met with Nicki Wheeler from our local partner LAST (Latin American Sea Turtle) yesterday. She confirms that everything is ready for us and that the first batch of turtle hatchlings are due to emerge any day now. She also told us that the weather at Pacuare has been wet and last night we experienced a big rain and thunder storm here in San Jose. Don’t forget your raincoat!
We all look forwards to meeting the first expedition on Monday. Nicki will be in San Jose to greet you and see you on your way to Pacuare where we will be waiting for your arrival.
Welcome to our third and final team for 2016. While it is our smallest group, what they lack numbers they make up for in diversity. Our group truly embraces the international nature of Biosphere Expeditions, coming from Portugal, France, Germany, Greece, the United Kingdom, Brazil and the USA.
As part of this team, we additionally benefit from having three (local and international) Master’s students from the University of the Azores. They gain valuable field resesearch experience and we (hopefully) improve our knowledge of Horta and perhaps our Portuguese!
So with the team in place, and briefings and training completed, we set out to sea on our first afternoon of survey. Many people may be familiar with Performance Indicators at your place of work. But how do we assess our first day at sea? Simple, a baseline indicator is to have more cetacean sightings, than people ‘feeding the fish’! Finding your sea legs is all part of the learning process, and whilst not easy for all, the day was definitely a success.
Perhaps predictably we encountered common dolphins first, who were the most social group so far, and we then went off in search of a blue whale known to be in the area. We soon got more that we bargained for as a blue whale surfaced close to the boat only moments later. It is not often you get a blue whale as a ‘random sighting’, and so close that you can almost see down its blow hole!
With that encounter documented, we went off in search of the ‘original’ blue whale, spotted by the lookout on Pico. The animal obliged us with an extended encounter, with Pico as the backdrop.
Heading back to Horta, we soon spotted a fast-moving pod of dolphins. Striped dolphins to be precise, but it turned out they were actually in a mixed pod with some common dolphins.
So another great first day at sea. Starting with two blue whales – the largest species that has ever lived on this planet – is hard to beat! And if the variety of our sightings matches that of our group, it will hopefully be another great week.
Little did we know what we would see, when at breakfast we enjoyed some great ‘blues’ music of John Lee Hooker. I wonder if there is a band out there called The Orcas??
Common dolphin (Craig Turner)Harbour-side briefing from Lisa (Craig Turner)Boat orientation (Craig Turner)Close encounter of a blue (whale) kind (Craig Turner)Blue whale south of Pico (Craig Turner)Silvio hard at work recording data (Craig Turner)The characteristic mottling and colouration of the blue whale (Craig Turner)Striped dolphins (Lisa Steiner)
So we have passed the halfway point of the 2016 expedition, but still have much ground (or ocean) to cover.
As with any field research, you will always have slow days. The objects of your study never seem to be where you are! This was the case on Thursday, which saw a repeat of Wednesday in terms of geography, but not in terms of sightings. Again we headed clockwise around Faial, but with only a few sightings of baleen whales, the cetaceans records in the afternoon, all but dried up. This time no dolphins, sperm whales or baleen whales. A testing and unrewarding afternoon for the team.
The increasing winds and rising sea state ensured another shore day on Friday. But this time to review images, consolidate data and try to match ‘fins’ and ‘flukes’ to individuals in the existing databases. This necessary and vital part of the research effort was rewarded with a notable finding.
A sperm whale previously recorded in Madeira and the Canaries was matched to the Azores. Demonstrating a ‘triangle of movement’ between the island groups for the first time and meaning Lisa now has to update her latest research poster. Always good when joining the dots means we advance our scientific knowledge!
The appalling weather of Friday (rain, low cloud) gave no indication of what was to come on Saturday. With calm seas and blue skies and an initial encounter with Risso’s dolphins, we were soon distract by fin whales, and reports of ‘blues’ in the area. Eight fin whales and two blue whales later, having observed blue and fin whales together (another rarely observed behaviour), our research was nearly done. We finished our time at sea as we started, with a blue whale.
And for those of you interested in the numbers, our 6 days at sea during this slot 2 have yielded 63 cetacean encounters with over 250 individuals, across 8 different species. Another great effort from slot 2!
Thank you again for all your hard work on and off the boat.
Safe travels home (slot 2) and to the Azores (slot 3).
Hello and welcome to the Costa Rica expedition diary. My name is Catherine Edsell and I will be your expedition leader on this brand-new Biosphere Expeditions project, helping our local partner LAST (Latin American Sea Turtles) with sea turtle conservation on the Caribbean coast.
During our time at their Pacuare field station we will be working closely with Magali Marion, LAST’s on-site biologist who will endeavour to train us in all aspects of leatherback turtle monitoring. Ida Vincent, expedition leader in training, will be assisting me throughout, and Dr. Matthias Hammer, executive director of Biosphere Expeditions, will also be joining us for the first few days, to help with getting set up.
I trust all your preparations are going well, and I look forward to meeting the first expedition team on 2 May. I will not be at Hotel Santo Tomas for the assembly, as Ida, Matthias and I will be readying the station for your arrival. You will be met by Nicki Wheeler from LAST at 09.00 in the lobby of the hotel Santo Tomas, from where you will be transferred by vehicle to Pacuare. Nicki will be there from 08.30, and it is important that you are not late as we have a busy day ahead of us, with night patrols that same evening.
Please do have another look through your dossier and familiarise yourself with all the information therein, check you have all the necessary kit, and I shall see you in just under two weeks. I will be leaving the UK in a few days time to get everything organised, and will send you another update nearer the time.
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