El Dia de Los Muertos

A week and a half has gone by with me working on this sea turtle projects and it's been mostly tagging which entails going out on a panga boat (where we reach what is probably max weight with only 4 people) and swimming after turtles.  When the opportunity arises that you can get close enough to a sea turtle and grab them before they swim off, you have to fight them to the surface (unlike sea turtles, we can't hold our breaths for 30+ minutes) and swim with them back to the boat.  Then haul them into the boat (they weigh between 25-100 kilos, or 55-220 pounds) for tagging (aka fin piercing), skin samples, carapace (shell) samples, weight, body measurements, and photos.  We do this about every other day and get about 10 turtles/day.  We'll also do a census while we're out there using a technique called shark fishing.  Despite the name, it's pretty fun holding on to a towrope behind the boat and getting dragged around.  Every time a turtle is spotted underwater, the 'bait' lifts their head up and hollers whether it's a male, female, or juvenile.  And on the off days I am in the lab prepping the fresh samples for genetic analysis, while we wait for the materials to arrive so that we can actually do the analysis.  Catching turtles is more difficult than what meets the eye and the shorter you are, the smaller a reach, and hence more of a disadvantage.  But it is easier to catch turtles when they are nesting in the sand or preoccupied on something else so that they don't notice you as much which allows you to get a little closer.  I'm not very good at catching turtles and it's not something I take pleasure in because I have a hard time with my conscience knowing that I'm about to inflict stress on the animal.  Even when I'm a foot away from a turtle feeding on algae, I'll wait till it stops eating or go after another turtle or wait till it sees me and swims away.  Because really, who wants to be kidnapped (or should I say turtlenapped) while they're eating?!  I saw in the logbooks that someone had taken a turtle while it was mating... is this the point where science surpasses its boundary doing more harm than good while interfering?  And this is one of the reasons why I love being a Physical oceanographer.  It's a type of science that will always be there as long as the earth is spinning and won't die nor be negatively impacted by scientists.

Now today/yesterday (breaking up the writing and publishing of this post) the horrible news that my very 1st dog and 2nd 'real' pet ('real' meaning it lived longer than a week and not including the hamster whose fate had always been doomed from the beginning), Jake, who I use to give bear hugs to and massaged his ears and used him as a pillow and repeatedly pat the sweet spot just above his tail to make him squat then sit and gave kisses to (not the most sanitary but hey I love him), but who had the stinkiest farts I've smelt and would wait till someone momentarily left the kitchen to jump up and put his paws on the table to scarf down a grilled cheese or a whole plate of turkey bacon or sleep on the beds when everyone left the house (only occurred in his older years) or get chased around by cats and sometimes suffer a scratch on the face after stealing the neighbors' cat food.  So yes I am very very sad and if anyone wanted to send me a cheer up package I would super appreciate it.  Also if you know me super super well (probably this only really classifies my family since I try to hide it from others), you know that I don't deal with emotions like sadness or rage very well (a character flaw of mine) and usually these emotions manifest themselves into other matters in my life affecting those too making it more pronounced to other people despite my efforts to keep those emotions hidden.  So further support for a cheer up package to maintain my sanity.

IF that wasn't one way to start off a day, too damn bad it doesn't get any better.  Today/yesterday was one of those turtle capturing days except the PhD guy, whose project this is, didn't go out with us so it was 3 twenty-one year olds, 2 of which are new to the project (1 of those is me), and a twenty-year old whose first day it was volunteering on the project.  In total 2 gringos and 2 locals.  So we go to this shallow and rocky surf break, Canyon, to catch turtles and me & another student are out snorkeling for the turtles, meanwhile I'm keeping an eye out for the sets which weren't that big, only waist-stomach high, but with a bit of juice behind them.  Well I finally get a turtle and bring it back to the boat and a guy lifts it up and gets it over the railing but then drops it on my head and I get whacked by the turtle's carapace which knocks my mask off.  A little while later we've got 2 turtles on deck and we're taking all our samples and such.  So I'm jumping back and forth between these two turtles writing down measurements for one and taking pictures for another when I ask someone to hold the turtle up for me so that I can get a picture of the plastron.  [Side note:  We place black mesh bags over their eyes to keep the turtles more calm, but it can easily fall off while the turtle is moving around.]  As he takes off the black mesh and lifts up the turtle I notice the lank neck, open eyes, and open mouth.  The look of death.  I tell the others, but they don't believe me at first.  Wasn't hard to convince them.  So what do we do with a turtle that was alive when we brought it on the boat and is now dead?  I called 'the boss' who told us to bring the body back with us when we return and continue catching more turtles.  Great.  If my dog's death isn't already enough.  And the whole time after this kid is teasing me saying I killed it (which I had no part in, didn't catch it or take samples or measurements, only photos) which started out just a nuisance but really upset me seeing as my dog died and now this turtle and he couldn't read when to quit (same kid who dropped the turtle on my head).  Once we finished we had to dump everything out of one of the crates to put the body of the turtle in and then cover it up to smuggle it to the dock without anyone noticing.  This made me question the legality of our actions.  Also the tone of the boss gave me suspicions too.  After returning to the university we cleaned up the equipment and dragged a metal table outside to begin the turtle autopsy behind the university with a couple of kitchen knives and a handful of disposable razors.  As they cut open and enjoyingly hacked around the inside of the turtle, I notice a slight ring of foam leaching from the turtle's mouth.  Curious about this, I open up the mouth to investigate farther and notice some algae in there.  Taking this for sampling I then get the person with the knife to cut open the throat only to discover that there is more algae shoved in there.  We follow this down to the stomach where there again is even more algae and I take this for sampling also.  Seeing how there were no boat strikes nor carapace problems and the turtle looked perfectly healthy, I throw out the hypothesis that the turtle choked.  After the dissection we cleaned up the blood and guts, disposed them in the woods behind the university, and tomorrow we will dispose of the body.  So I go home around 6 and have to get ready for a surprise birthday party for my bro-in-law who is a park ranger.  But his wife and a couple of other people are over when I get home so I have to wait till I'm alone with my mom to ask her about the legality of what happened earlier today.  It would also suck to get arrested by my bro-in-law on his birthday in front of the family.  I finally get a little bit of time late at night after returning to the house to ask her what you can and can't do.  No surprise that she said what we did was illegal, but we have park permits for our research (which I've never been shown nor have been given to read but know exist somewhere) but I don't know what this allows us to do for such scenarios like the one we're facing.

Jakey