The Barbados Sea Turtle Project is seeking field volunteers to assist in their long-running hawksbill turtle monitoring programme:

The duties of volunteers vary based on their assignment to either Night or Day Patrol teams.

Night Patrol Duties:

You will be required to patrol beaches along the south and west coasts of Barbados from 7:30 pm to 4:30 am, six nights per week (i.e. one night off per week) for the duration of your time as a volunteer. During beach patrols, you will be required to record nesting and hatchling emergence events, tag nesting females, and to collect morphometric data and environmental data with a high degree of accuracy and reliability.

You may also be required to rescue disoriented hatchlings and adult turtles, undertake relocations of nests laid in unsuitable locations and educate the public and tourists about marine turtles. Sea turtles often nest in front of hotels, and therefore are highly visible to the public. Ensuring the safety of the nesting female, collecting data, and answering questions are all aspects of a BSTP patrol.

Day Patrol Duties:

You will be required to patrol beaches along the south and west coasts of Barbados from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm, six days per week (i.e. one day off) for the duration of your time as a volunteer. During beach patrols, you will be required to record tracks from the previous night’s activities, nests, hatchling emergence events and to collect environmental data with a high degree of accuracy and reliability. There is a reduced likelihood of seeing nesting females during Day Patrol, though female turtles will occasionally nest during the early morning or late afternoon.

You may also be required to rescue disoriented hatchlings which have remained disoriented after moving toward well-lit properties during the night, to deal with nesting females that have become trapped in drains or within the boundaries of beachfront properties and to deal with turtle stranding events (sick, injured or dead turtles that wash ashore). There is a much greater emphasis on public interaction and education during the daytime and this, therefore, is a larger part of the day patrol responsibilities than those of the night patrol.

Find out more at seaturtle.org.  

[Image credit: Meg Stewart]