Turtle Tagging at its fines

Author: Anmargaret W.
Location: Anegada
After listening to all of the comments during reflection time before dinner, I think it is safe to say that today was the best day yet. The chefs Danielle and Andy, woke up early to prepare cheesy eggs and poppy seed muffins, which were delicious. We had a fun time singing along to my ipod's warey wakey playlist and waking others up for the day. After breakfast and a fast clean-up, we headed out to the local Anegada fisherman's wharf. In groups of 4 or 5, the whole team rotated between turtle collecting and turtle tagging. The first boat comprised of Sophie, Sara, Andy, Taylor and Jack. Sara and Andy each caught a turtle. You may thing that two turtles is not many, but you probably do not understand the difficulty that comes with catching a turtle. First, the turtle must be spotted. Rocks, clumps of seaweed, skates and lemon sharks, while interesting, only make the search for turtles more difficult. Once the turtle has been located, it must be chased around in the skiff. Surprisingly, turtles are extremely fast. Alex, a local from Anegada who is an expert turtle tagger, helped to find turtles. After about 5 minutes of chasing, the turtle becomes tired and begins to swim in small circles. This provides the people in the boat an opportunity at catching a "slow turtle". The second boat consisted of Danielle, Emily, Allison, Megan, Hannah and myself. We caught 4 turtles and saw many skates and 1 questionable Bull shark. The last boat included Jamie, Torin, Zandy, John, and Matt. They brought in 6 turtles, bringing the group total to 12. To tag the turtles, we had to put them on their backs so they would not crawl around. We would take multiple measurements, take notes about their shells, tag each of their front fins, and inject them with a microchip so they can be easily tracked. My favorite adventure of the day was when Ali, Danielle, Megan, Emily, and I herded a turtle into the shallows so that Emily could catch her first turtle. Names of turtles included Verde, Old Bay, Bubbles, Rafiki Bonaparte Warner, and Prince Charming. After the catch and release project, we sailed to Marina Cay near Beef Island, ate a delicious Summertime Thanksgiving dinner, made brownies and relaxed on the boat.

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