TURTLES!!! And THE Most Inspiring Person on the Planet
Rise and shine! We woke up early this morning to get a jump-start on our service experience. After a quick breakfast of Honey Nut Cheerios (not sponsored) and oatmeal, we headed out to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. We met up with some of the volunteers to figure out what we would be doing for the day. With a very warm welcome, the Sunday volunteers explained some of the tasks we would be doing. Four members of our group ventured into Sick Bay to care for the more critical sea turtles, while the rest of us filed into Sea Turtle Bay to care for the other residents of the hospital. Donald and I were in Sea Turtle Bay: we walked in to see large tanks containing Loggerhead, Green, and Kemp's Ridley sea turtles. The largest tank was home to Snooki, a 350-pound Loggerhead, who Donald and I had the pleasure of meeting last year. A few volunteers introduced us to some of the sea turtles, and then we jumped right into volunteering tasks. We started by using Clorox rags to disinfect the top and outside of the tanks. Of course, we watched and admired the turtles the whole time. At that point, we began feeding. A cart was brought into the room, with bowls full of fish and squid. We were given the bowls for certain sea turtles and trekked around the room to find the corresponding turtle. Watching the turtles happily snap at their food was a highlight of the morning. While we waited for the turtles to eat and digest, we helped with various chores around the hospital. After an hour, it was time to clean the tanks. Using large nets, we scooped out the remaining food and turtles feces. We then used a brush to scrub the tank and scratch the turtles' backs. If you earned a "butt wiggle" then you were doing it right. Jane and Grant were very proud to announce that they earned multiple butt wiggles from their turtles. Interestingly enough, this is to stimulate the scratching behavior in the turtles, since they will often scratch on coral or rocks in the ocean. Even though most of the sea turtles in Sea Turtle Bay are in good condition, we were still able to help out with a few medical procedures. Grant was able to help with the care of a large, male Loggerhead, while the other members of our team observed and help with massaging the flippers of two Green sea turtles. After a few more simple cleaning tasks, we finished up and headed back to the house for lunch and a nice afternoon rest.
After lunch, we jetted over to the Sea Turtle Rescue where we listened to a talk by Jean and Judy. Listening to Jean was incredible, and her talk was essentially a motivational speech. Per usual, every sentence she uttered could have been framed and mounted on a wall. She said that we were ambassadors for the turtles; since the turtles allowed us to make such deep connections with them, we were obliged to return the favor and contribute to marine conservation in any way that we could.
"Look into their eyes," she said, "and you'll find some truly special."
After Jean spurred us to action, we listened to a talk by Judy on the history of the Sea Turtle Rescue and background on marine conservation.
We learned that Jean's daughter motivated her to dedicate her life to the turtles. From a young age, Karen Beasley would take little steps towards sea turtle conservation by covering up turtle nesting tracks on the beach. Throughout the rest of her life, Karen worked towards protecting the turtles and advocating for them. Unfortunately, she passed away from leukemia, but her last request to Jean was that her life insurance money be used to protect the turtles. And Jean took that to heart. 45 years on, she's still working with turtles, and her story was the perfect representation of the resilience and determination she carries in her life everyday.
After talking about marine conservation with Judy, we returned home with full hearts, and later, fuller bellies- thanks Nelson and Sherry!
Reflection was emotional, very informative, and definitely set a great tone for the week. Looking forward to telling you all about the aquarium tomorrow!
Signing off,
Katie and Donald
After lunch, we jetted over to the Sea Turtle Rescue where we listened to a talk by Jean and Judy. Listening to Jean was incredible, and her talk was essentially a motivational speech. Per usual, every sentence she uttered could have been framed and mounted on a wall. She said that we were ambassadors for the turtles; since the turtles allowed us to make such deep connections with them, we were obliged to return the favor and contribute to marine conservation in any way that we could.
"Look into their eyes," she said, "and you'll find some truly special."
After Jean spurred us to action, we listened to a talk by Judy on the history of the Sea Turtle Rescue and background on marine conservation.
We learned that Jean's daughter motivated her to dedicate her life to the turtles. From a young age, Karen Beasley would take little steps towards sea turtle conservation by covering up turtle nesting tracks on the beach. Throughout the rest of her life, Karen worked towards protecting the turtles and advocating for them. Unfortunately, she passed away from leukemia, but her last request to Jean was that her life insurance money be used to protect the turtles. And Jean took that to heart. 45 years on, she's still working with turtles, and her story was the perfect representation of the resilience and determination she carries in her life everyday.
After talking about marine conservation with Judy, we returned home with full hearts, and later, fuller bellies- thanks Nelson and Sherry!
Reflection was emotional, very informative, and definitely set a great tone for the week. Looking forward to telling you all about the aquarium tomorrow!
Signing off,
Katie and Donald
Comments
Post a Comment