Today we woke up at around 7:30 and got ready until eight fifteen. We all started the trek to Mr. Kirby’s and Docs place and arrived at around 8:15. We had a breakfast buffet waiting for us consisting of assorted fruits, honey buns, Quaker oat bars, and several different types of bread. We all ate a heart breakfast and where ready for the day. We headed over to the docks and went into the gift shop for twenty minutes in order to help us have time to buy souvenirs. We then headed to the boats and talked to a government official about turtle tagging. His name was Joelle and he explained that he was the head of the CFD and he also explained the benefit of tagging turtles and how we would catch the turtles. The strategy was to get to them by there blind spot, which was above the shell, while two other people flanked it, giving the turtle something to look at. We started this process by being towed behind the boat by holding onto a rope and raising our hand when we saw a turtle. Our first turtle that we saw was a green turtle after we got close to it he quickly eluded us and left the area. The next turtle we saw was a hawks bill that was much more mellow with humans then the last turtle was. We kept diving down to it but it always escaped just barely. Once I did get it by the top of its shell but the turtle sensed this and did a flip causing me to release my grip. Shortly after our dive master, Jeremy, jumped in and coaxed it into shallow water he dove down and attempted to grab it by the shell but the turtle swam away. By now he was down about sixty seconds but instead of coming up he swam hard, caught up to the turtle and firmly grabbed it by the top and bottom of the shell. He brought it to the surface and by the time he got another breath it had almost been a minute and a half. He held it above water and laid it down on the deck. We brought it to the towel on the deck and put it upside down while Joelle explained to us the anatomy of the turtle and where we would be tagging it. He noticed two problems, which were several barnacles and an infection. We took its measurements and named it “Krush” after Nemo’s turtle friend. We then tagged it on both flippers with a metallic tag and also inserted a microchip in its neck. After that catch we let the other group go. They saw a three flippered green turtle and a hawks bill but didn’t get a chance at catching either. We then went and had lunch at savannah bay with Jessica and learned about several invertebrates including sea urchin’s and fire worms. We then got back to our cabin’s and played ERS for a while before having an Asian themed dinner at the same place as two days ago.
