I cannot believe I am done already and writing my last one of these! This has been the best experience of my life and I am very grateful of everyone that made it possible. With that said, I had a very exciting week at the Science Center. It started out pretty normal. On Monday, I worked with Chantal in the Husbandry and after lunch I worked with Sea Camp. This was the final week of Sea Camp because Savannah starts school next week and there were a lot of kids. Tuesday is when it got exciting. I worked in the Husbandry basically all day, for a few different reasons. In the morning, I made an entire batch of Sea Turtle Gel on my own, then I went seining with McKenna. We did not do well at all.
Tuesday afternoon is when it got really exciting. I was set to assist Sydney in the gallery, but then we had six baby sea turtles brought in. All species of Sea Turtles are on the endangered animal list and so it is illegal to touch them without a proper permit, but six baby loggerheads, who hatched just the night before were found by hotel cleaning staff in a trashcan in a shower of a hotel room with just a little bit of water. Luckily, there were all alive and looked to be in really good health. We spent the afternoon weighing and measuring them and Tuesday evening, we went out and released all but one into the Ocean so they could swim out to the Sargasso Sea. The sixth one is being kept at the Science Center for two years to help raise awareness and to give him a better chance of making it all the way to adulthood.
It was really spectacular to watch them crawl out into the ocean and swim/drift away. Everyone was very excited when we found that they were alive and healthy. Wednesday, we gave the baby turtle his first bites which was very exciting! Also, a really good sign. In the afternoon, I shadowed Sydney for her public programs, the Sift’n’Sein and the Turtle Talk. They were very interesting and I learned a ton!
Thursday was another relatively uneventful day. I spent the morning in the Husbandry and did Sea Camp in the afternoon. On Friday, it got exciting again. Friday was Matthew, the Sea Turtle’s, birthday! He turned two and that means he is getting ready to leave the Science Center. Of course we had to have a big party for him at the end of the day. We decorated with streamers, made a turtle and human cake, and sung him happy birthday. Matthew’s cake had three different flavored layers. The bottom layer was blue crab, the middle layer Turtle Gel and fish, and the top layer was shrimp. I really think her loved it!
Matthew’s Cake
It was sad saying goodbye to all of them, but some of them I saw last night at the Nest Excavation I was invited to. Five days after a nest hatches, the Turtle Rescue Program goes to excavate it and see how the nest turned out and if there were any stragglers. The one on Saturday was very successful. There were six stragglers in the nest that they were able to release back into the ocean.
On Friday, my mother and sister flew in and we are going to visit colleges, but I am sad to say, that my internship has officially ended. It has been a truly wonderful experience, thank you to everyone who was a part of it!
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