College student helps to conserve the Leatherback Sea Turtle of Matura
Posted on Saturday 15 August 2009
Bethan Ashley received a College Travel Scholarship to take part in an Earthwatch Teen Expedition to
Bethan Ashley's Expedition to Trinidad
17 year old College student, Bethan Ashley of Yateley, has just returned from a trip of a lifetime helping to protect and conserve Leatherback Sea Turtles in Trinidad with Earthwatch Teen, an American organisation which links future leaders to work with conservation scientists. Bethan received a Travel Scholarship from Farnborough Sixth Form College, where she is studying for A levels in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and AS Psychology, to assist with the expenses.
Her adventure began with a delayed flight, missed connection and lost luggage. Bethan, very tired and slightly tearful, was told there were no other connections – until she bumped into the manager at the airport. Bethan said, “Suddenly, I found myself on the next flight, causing uproar with everyone else on standby - sometimes it doesn’t hurt to be classed as a minor!”
In Trinidad, she found she was the only person in her team from outside the US. Bethan said, “It was slightly intimidating at first, but it didn’t take me long to find my feet and the Americans and Trinidadians had a massive fascination with my English accent - especially with the way I said ‘turtle’, so I found myself in popular demand and bearing a new nickname “English”. Spoken with a Trinidadian accent, it sounds pretty cool!”
Among the many activities in which Bethan was involved was digging up hatched or unsuccessful nests and then recording how many of each type of egg or shell was present. “You have to dig a hole that is probably just a bit deeper than arms length, meaning you are sprawled out flat on your stomach leaning head first into a hole with sand all inside your gloves, shoes, trousers – and even your ears!”, explained Bethan.
She had to burst any unbroken yolked eggs. “Although this provides crucial information for understanding turtle hatching successes and failures, I still couldn’t help but feel slightly revolted by the very potent, sweet and sickly smell that got stronger, the deeper you dug,” said Bethan.
When it was completely dark and the stars were out, the turtles started to nest and hatchlings would appear. Dressed mostly in black, Bethan and the team would walk along the shoreline, monitoring the process, “I remember my first turtle; I couldn’t believe how big she was!”
“At first, they appear as massive, dark lumps in the distance. Their movement is slow and strenuous as they make their way out of the surf, onto the coarse sandy beach. Their front flippers seem more like wings, sprawling across the sand, moving as if to create a snow angel,” said Bethan.
Throughout the night, in between tagging and measuring, Bethan was able to sit and watch these giants of the ocean as they dug perfectly formed nests and then proceeded to cover and camouflage them. Each movement she observed was precise and their flippers are perfectly formed for this behaviour. The eggs were white and perfectly spherical, each turtle laying between 80 and 120 of these pearls. Bethan said, “A hatchling is about the size of your hand, but a nesting female is easily 2 or 3 times the size of me.”
When she wasn’t monitoring turtles, Bethan was able to explore Trinidad, visiting villages, swimming and jumping through waterfalls, and even climbing a near vertical coconut tree. “It was one of the challenges I set myself when I first saw the locals getting coconuts - and I did it, I actually got 3 coconuts! They were about as stunned as I was!”
Although Bethan is now back in Yateley after her two-week expedition, she is still in contact with the rest of the group in Trinidad. "They phone every few days, just to hear my accent!", joked Bethan.
Reflecting on her adventure, Bethan said, "I'm really grateful for the help I received in financing the trip to do something different in the summer - and to make a difference to an endangered species."
