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Island Woman MJ
Island Expert
| Joined: | Mon Dec 25th, 2006 |
| Location: | Culebra |
| Posts: | 2264 |
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Posted: Tue Feb 12th, 2008 01:18 am |
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| http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/washington/news.aspx?id=77663
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Salva lo que queda! Save What's Left!
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Doug
Charter Member
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Posted: Tue Feb 12th, 2008 04:54 pm |
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Yes it is a very cool story, and one that has affected many visitors. "Turtle Watch" has been a part of coming to Culebra for most of the last 13 years. I have never participated in the egg laying part, but did, on my first visit, work with the nest excavation phase. I did so under the direction of a researcher named Julian. I have lost track of Julian's last name. If anyone remembers him, please post it for me.
Our Playa Brava assignment was to dig out, by hand, the nests after the hatch. This was done toward the end of July. I have to say, from an aroma perspective it was not the most pleasant of tasks  . Then we collected, separated, and counted the unhatched eggs, to compare the data to that was collected when they were layed, in April. The idea was to document the trend of increased percentages of unhatched fertile eggs. We were taught to identify the decoy eggs that are layed as a survival strategy. In the process, we came across a couple stragglers, still alive, and carried them down to the surf and sent them on their way. We took a couple pictures, one of which can be viewed on the CORALations website.
Over the years, Turtle Watch has been a bit of a political football, with jurisdiction fights and funding catastrophes Can you say "Dubya and the boys aren't wasting your tax dollars on endangered leatherbacks and hawksbills when there are Halliburton overruns to conceal?" The tragedy for Culebra is, that this program in its several incarnations, has served as a uniting force for Culebrenses and visitors to energize the system to maintain all the delicate community mechanisms that preserve the Culebra we love.
Save What's Left!
Salva lo que queda!
Doug
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"Let him who has a free hand cast the first stone."
Dennis Miller, on the Pee Wee Herman public outcry.
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ron
Charter Member
| Joined: | Sun Nov 4th, 2007 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 8 |
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Posted: Wed Feb 27th, 2008 01:20 pm |
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Doug,
It's Julian Howell, who now lives in Archer, FL.
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Doug
Charter Member
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Posted: Wed Feb 27th, 2008 02:08 pm |
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| Thanks, Pat!
____________________
"Let him who has a free hand cast the first stone."
Dennis Miller, on the Pee Wee Herman public outcry.
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