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| Volunteers at SUBIOS: Jonas, Brian, Paige and Nico |
The first week at Cap T with our five new volunteers is complete.
Adriana, Max, Hunter, Maggie and Tatyana have all settled in to base life,
learned how to run the compressor, cook for 30 people and completed their
Advanced Open Water course. They’ve seen enough Indian redfin butterflyfish,
soldierfish, emperor angelfish and more to get signed off on their fish in the
water will begin their fish methodology this week.
It is turtle nesting season here in Seychelles, so we are
starting to see more turtles on our weekly turtle dives. One dive pair saw four
hawksbill turtles today in the span on 45 minutes!
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| Hawksbill turtle |
Seychelles is one of the only places where Hawksbill turtles
come ashore and lay their eggs during the day. Though most of the turtle nest monitoring happens
on our terrestrial base on Curieuse, we do conduct turtle walks on 2 nearby
beaches from October to March when we go out for our weekly plankton pulls. Last
week we found turtle nest on one of the beaches. We will be keeping an eye on
it over the next two months to see if the eggs hatch and the little hatchlings
make their way to the sea.
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| Volunteer Laurie doing the plankton pull |
We also participated in a community event in Beau Vallon
this weekend – SUBIOS, Seychelles Festival of the Sea. This year’s theme was
Sustaining Life in a Sea of Change. GVI teamed up with Save Our Seas Academy by
the Sea and the Seychelles Turtle Festival to help local children make turtle hatchlings
out of recycled egg cartons, glue and paint. The volunteers and kids enjoyed
two beautiful days on the Beau Vallon beach. Volunteers were able to interact
with the local community and sample lots of local foods available at the food
stalls – everything from local Creole curries like kari koko poul (chicken
coconut curry) to local sausage and chips.
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| Tent at SUBIOS |
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| Volunteer Niklas getting painted |
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| Volunteers Niklas and Alex with local children |
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| Making turtle hatchlings |
Three of our volunteers even participated in
the “SUBIOS Man & Woman Competition.” Niklas, Jonas and Nico made a team
and completed the 3 stages – swimming, running and canoeing. Though they didn’t
come in first, they put in a great effort and had lots of support from the rest
of the GVI volunteers and staff cheering them on from the beach.
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| Staff and volunteers cheering for Niko in the kayak |
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| Watching the SUBIOS Man & Woman Competition |
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| Volunteer Niklas taking off on the running portion of the competition |
This week we are looking forward to the presentations and
management days from our Divemaster Interns as well as a Thanksgiving feast on
Thursday for all of our American volunteers.
Kate
Base Manager
24/11/13 Weekly Update from Cap Ternay: SUBIOS, Turtle Nests, Advanced Open Water & More!
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