FIELD UPDATE -- February 9, 2008

After some time off spent traveling through Ghana and Burkina Faso, I have just finished up my last week on the beach. I am very sad to be leaving here and wish very much that I could stay longer to continue looking for turtles and assisting Andy with his research and also working to expand our education efforts. I have had an amazing time getting to know Ghana and Ada Foah and learning a lot about one of the most fascinating animals on this planet. I am very thankful to Phil, Dr. AK Armah, the Department of Oceanography and Fisheries of the University of Ghana, HATCH, the Ghana Wildlife Division, and Andy for making this opportunity possible and for helping make my time in Ghana so wonderful. Thanks so much!

Our last week, while similar to previous weeks in terms of low nesting activity, was punctuated by one olive ridley sighting. We found the turtle as it was digging the body pit and happily, we were able to count and measure the eggs as well as fit the turtle with two shiny new metal tags. It was great to tag one last turtle before heading home although we really wish we could have tagged more this season.

We also made it to our first and sadly, my last, education program in a local school this week. We accompanied the Ghana Wildlife Division officers and observed as Dickson Agyeman, the chief officer, gave the presentation we helped to develop. It was a lot of fun and the kids seemed to get a lot out of it. They asked great questions. In addition, a class from the Department of Oceanography and Fisheries from the University of Ghana joined us on a walk one night to learn about the turtles and the work we are doing here.

Well it was a pleasure working here and writing for this blog. If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to email me at megan.mcsherry@gmail.com.

FIELD UPDATE -- January 19, 2008

Regrettably, there is not much good news to report regarding the tagging. We have seen very few nests since last writing and tagged only two more olive ridleys. It seems the leatherbacks have stopped nesting altogether and while it looked like the ridleys were starting up again several weeks ago, we have seen only one new nest since the first two.

                                                                                 

However, we have been very busy with other activities since writing last. We were able to visit a nearby island where the community is working with the Ghana Wildlife Division on various conservation and ecotourism projects. Later we worked with the Wildlife Division officers to develop an education presentation on wetlands and biodiversity conservation with a focus on sea turtles. We had intended to meet with one community this week but unfortunately, the presentation was cancelled. We hope to reschedule it as soon as possible and to also start scheduling programs in the schools now that they have reopened. We also did a daytime survey looking for nests and tracks on the beach west of where we regularly walk. We started at the Songor Lagoon and ended at the Cocoloko Beach Resort. We saw 4 leatherback nests and 2 olive ridley nests, both of which were found depredated. In addition we conducted this month's beach profiling on Saturday, January 19th with the help of a member of a local community member. Finally, we went through our data to find the locations of nests that should be ready to hatch and have begun checking them on our nightly surveys. On three occasions we dug up nests that were over 70 days old and found that the eggs had indeed hatched. Sadly, we also found several of the olive ridley nests to be depredated. We are yet to find hatchlings on the beach but are hopeful that we will soon as more nests reach the time to hatch.

FIELD UPDATE -- DECEMBER 22, 2007

FIELD UPDATE -- DECEMBER 9, 2007

The turtle tagging season in Ada Foah has started out slow but with a few exciting, turtle-filled nights thrown in. For the first week, we encountered dozens of nests yet no turtle. Finally, on Monday the 26^th, we encountered our first turtle- a big, beautiful leatherback, just as we stepped onto the beach. She was digging the egg chamber when we met her and we patiently waited for her to finish digging and then drop the eggs before coming up behind her to tag our first turtle of the season. We then watched her spend about a half an hour disguising the nest before slowly making her way back to the sea. Afterwards, we set about counting the eggs and measuring and weighing a sample of 25 of them. Not long after that first encounter and farther down the beach that same night, we managed to tag four more turtles, all olive ridleys. One was almost to the water after coming out for a non-nesting emergence when we caught up to it. We were luckily able to get a hold of it long enough to tag it and take its measurements. All in all, it proved to be a very exciting, albeit long, night! It was followed by another night of being able to tag three more turtles: 1 leatherback and 2 olive ridleys. Since then though there has been somewhat of a lull in nesting activity. However, early in the morning on December 5, with the help of Seidu, a Wildlife Division officer who was out on the beach with a couple of tourists and alerted us to the turtle’s presence, we were able to tag our third leatherback and a few days later our fourth. We are hopeful that things will start to pick up again early next week.

Andy and I have also been keeping busy with outreach activities as well. We spent one Saturday walking around Ada Foah delivering brochures to the local hotels and guesthouses highlighting opportunities for turtle walks. The managers agreed to post the brochures on their notice boards for interested tourists to see. The information sharing has already begun as a few tourists taken for walks by the Wildlife Division had learned about the opportunity through the brochures. Andy and I, together with the Wildlife Division officers, also met with the Ada Foah Hotel Commission and discussed with them the tourism appeal of promoting sea turtle walks. We explained to them how important it was to direct interested tourists to the Wildlife Division to ensure the proceeds went back into sea turtle conservation efforts. Many of them were unaware even that the beach in Ada Foah held such possibilities and were delighted to learn that promoting turtle walks will help attract business. More recently this past weekend, Andy and I traveled to Accra to distribute brochures to some of the hotels and tourist-visited restaurants there. We also gathered information from the local hotels in Ada Foah on rates and contact information to be included on the website and on hand at the Wildlife Division office for people interested in coming to see the turtles. Next weekend with Mr. Armah from the University of Ghana, we hope to meet with some of the local fishermen to discuss the importance of protecting sea turtles and to inform them of ways that they can help.