February 2007 Summary
By Adrian Davies and Melanie Schulz
Night Patrols
After being cancelled because of the illegal immigrant issue night patrols were due to start again on the 3rd of February. However night patrols were then plagued by a number of different problems; shortage of volunteers, broken boat, someone getting bitten by an unidentified sea creature in the first channel etc. From the 19th of February night patrols got back to normal for the brief section until the end of night patrols. During all times when night patrols had to be cancelled the beaches were still checked in the morning either by boat check or by foot.
Hatchling Patrol
Whilst resources are available we will check the beaches for hatched nests by foot every other day, as at the end of February starts the beginning of hatchling season. On the southern beaches especially, the high water mark is usually up to the vegetation which makes it possible (although it is unlikely) that a nest could have been missed.
Staff and Volunteers
After having to return home briefly due to my grandfathers passing, I returned to Baan Talae Nork on the 18th of February. During my time away Melanie and Pi Dom ran the project. There were no more ISV volunteer groups but instead independent volunteers, Michel from the 3rd ISV group returned from the 18th until the 26th of February.
Haad Thaymuang visit
Upon the 17th of February I was invited to visit the Haad Thaymuang centre near Phuket. This is run by the Department of Coastal Resources and supported by Aleenta Spa Resort. They look after a number of Sea Turtles brought in by fishermen after incidental capture and also run an incubation program. Following the visit I gave feedback to Aleenta Spa and made some suggestions for changes. I wish to thank Aleenta Spa for allowing me the opportunity to visit the centre.
Feeding habitat Survey
Upon the 24th and 25th of February we were able to head out to the islands off the coast of Baan Talae Nork and investigate the aquatic environment. Under the guidance of Agen Sompotch 4 dive sites were selected and investigated using Scuba diving equipment. Some of the sites in the past commonly gave sightings of Green and Hawksbill Turtles however upon investigation none were seen. There was a lot of sedimentation on the coral reefs as well as some signs of Tsunami damage. Some past sea grass beds were also missing.
Education Activities
3 more schools were visited during February.
After watching and translating the English Presentation during the other education days, Pi Dom was able to give the presentation right the way through in Thai for these three schools. This seems to work a lot better for the children. After the presentations as usual conservation games were played with the children and the infamous Turtle bingo game and turtle song were brought out again.
January 2006 Summary
By Melanie Schulz
Beach Monitoring
After the two week period over Christmas and New Year with limited resources for night patrols the third group of ISV volunteers arrived in Baan Talae Nork on the 4th January to support the sea turtle project. We immediately started again to cover all the beaches north of the village with night patrols and continued the Laem Baa check as last month by either boat ride or morning walk during first light. Unfortunately the motivation of the volunteers to monitor the beaches during the night was not as enthusiastic as we hoped it to be as most of them came with completely different expectations and their interest was more concentrated on community development than nature conservation.
The 3rd volunteer group left BTN on the 18th January and the 4th and last ISV group of this season arrived at the same and stayed until the 1st of February. This group seemed to enjoy night patrols very much and they settled in well to the different working and sleeping rhythms. Unfortunately we had to cancel all night patrol activities at the 24th of January for security reasons and could not start before the 3rd of February again. The reason for this break was a high military presence around the area and at the beaches as illegal immigrants were caught on the beach. To guarantee a continuously monitoring of the beaches we surveyed the area by boat every morning at first light like we do with Laem Baa beach.
In spite of all our effort and work during the night and day patrols we unfortunately have not been rewarded with at least one single sea turtle coming to lay eggs along our patrolled area. Although the peak nesting season is over now there is maybe still the change to see a nest, but to be honest I for myself have given up hope.
Litter Pick
The volunteers participated in a litter pick session and collected mainly plastic, bottles, shoes, fishing nets and Styrofoam. The garbage bags filled the whole back of our truck and the cleaned area only covered the area between the medical centre until 300 meters up the road to the north. That showed that environmental pollution through garbage being thrown away is a big problem in that area and to clean up the rest of BTN beach, the area around the jelly fish farm, the road and the village itself would require plenty of extra litter picking days. To achieve a more long-term effect and to create a bigger understanding about the waste problem we recommend that a proper garbage disposal, the effects of environmental pollution through garbage and possible solutions are incorporated in further education programs for school children as well as adult village people. Maybe the next litter pick activities can be carried out together with school children of BTN School to integrate the local people in clean-up activities of their home village.
Sea turtle team
After postponing the arrival date a couple of times, the second research assistant finally told WARF that he is not coming anymore because of personal reasons. At short notice and because of sad reasons Adrian had to leave BTN to travel home at the end of January but he will come back to the project after two weeks and we all are looking forward to welcoming him again and having him back in our team. I took over his tasks and I am going to run the turtle project together with Pi Dom for that period.
Education Activities:
Children's Day in Ranong: A couple of ISV volunteers as well as some WAR Thai staff spend a day in Ranong to participate in the Children's Day celebrations. We set up our sea turtle information boards and sold some sea turtle t-shirts and souvenirs. Our team helped to answer questions about our project and tried to spread information about the importance of sea turtle conservation in Thailand.
The volunteers were also involved in two Education days in Baan Kampuan School and Baan Suksamran School. Like at previous education days we gave basic presentations to teach about turtle species, lifecycle, threats faced by sea turtles and how students can help to save the animals. The volunteers also designed a colorful bingo game that can be reused for the next education sessions and they wrote a turtle song in thai that the students learned how to sing while Pi Dom was playing the guitar. The students enjoyed singing that song very much and we found out that it helped them to remember the most important points about sea turtles.
Tourism
In Kuraburi, which is a city 30km south of BTN in a quite touristy area we put up posters in various places like tourist office, internet caf?, dive shop and the North Andaman Zunami Recovery Program Center to advertise about our project. This area is one of the main departure points for dive trips to the close by islands and we think that as divers obviously are very interested in marine life we can maybe attract some tourists to visit our sea turtle project. Unfortunately BTN is quite a remote village and it is difficult to reach by public transport which might be a big disadvantage for tourists to come to visit the WARED Center.
December 2006 Summary
By Adrian Davies
Due to a lack of Radios available, responsible people and our concerns for the safety of the volunteers Leam Baa beach night patrols had to be canceled from the first of December until present. During the morning the boat driver would check it by boat as close as possible to first light and when the sea has been too rough to ride a boat in then myself or Pi Dom have walked to Leam Baa from Long beach main camp and checked during first light. Leam Baa beach has proved too important in the past to not check it! Despite this Night patrols continued as previous.
The group of Volunteers then took place in an education day at Baan Talae Nork School on the 5th of December. The children were asked some questions about sea turtles and then asked to color in some pictures of sea turtles. All the children were very enthusiastic about the day, and later they played some games.
The next group of Volunteers arrived on the 7th of December and had a very positive attitude and all of them worked tremendously well, there were some very amusing people in this group to say the least. Credit must be given to them for all the extra work they did in preparation for the IOSEA day and the initiative a lot of them took by themselves to help out even when not directly requested. They settled into night work and the routine straight away, with no disruption at all.
The IOSEA workshop took place on the 13th of December (please see IOSEA WORKSHOP report). The day was a success and at the time seemed like it had gained us a lot of conservation allies, including the Ranong local governor and National Park Staff (who promised to send some people down to help out with night patrols, however so far this has not happened).
This group were involved in two education days at Bang Kloy Nork and Kuan Sai Ngam School on the 19-20 Of December. For these days a simple presentation was given by myself and Melanie on Turtle species of Thailand, Lifecycle (with demonstrations by Brandon an over zealous volunteer on the second day) and Threats faced by sea turtles, we also talked about what we could do to help turtles and whether children consumed eggs in the past. Next both schools played some games to do with sea turtle conservation and what they had learnt previous, games such as "what's the time Mr. Poacher and bull dog with sea turtle species". After this we went back inside and played some songs on guitar the second groups remix of jingle bells was shocking to say the least! But none the less the school children all seemed to have a very enjoyable day on both occasions despite this.
This group of Volunteers finished work on the 20th of December which unfortunately left a 2 week period over the PEAK nesting season with very limited people for night patrols. This was always going to be a problem and was something we had tried to rectify without avail, such as by putting up posters on backpacker boards and internet sites. This problem was also made worst by my second Research Assistant not turning up and postponing his arrival. However again we managed to scrape a team of people together to patrol every night, however this meant fewer beaches were patrolled during the night, but all were still checked every morning. A lot of mornings on foot again because the sea was too choppy. Despite having to work during this time we allowed ourselves some gay festivities such as decorating a Christmas tree and a Christmas BBQ on the beach before the start of our patrols.
For this two week period Pi Dom, Melanie and Myself all put in exceptional energy, time and commitment to keep night patrols running but also a mention must go out to the WAR Thai staff who we also drafted in whenever we could steal them (working on their time off!) and the token tourist we could persuade to come down. Sadly our commitment and exceptional dedication has not been rewarded with any turtle nests! But we should not give up hope yet.
On the 28th of December we attended the opening of Banana Bay Resort at Bang Glouy beach. Previous to this day I had struck up a good relationship with the Resort owner and they were happy to put up a display board with some information about sea turtle conservation and our project in their resort and help however possible. It is hoped to encourage any tourist they have stay down to the WARED centre. I also hope to expand this kind of relationship to other hotels and resorts in the area which will go hand in hand with the work that the WARED centre does for its eco tourism club initiative.
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By Adrian Davies
This years sea turtle project has started off with preparation for the IOSEA "SEATURTLE CONSERVATION Workshop", and in organising a schedule for night and day patrols. Past seasons nesting locations were analysed and discussions took place with the infamous Mr Deed. This helped in determining the beaches important enough to be surveyed by night and which could be surveyed by day. A full scale military operation was needed for night work, taking into account; the 3 channels which could not be crossed at high tide, food supply drops, boat deploy of volunteers and radio connections. Each beach involving night work will be patrolled at regular intervals throughout the night, in order to intercept any nesting female leatherback turtles (or indicate any other species nesting). Allowing the nest to be protected and disguised before anyone else gets to it.
The first 15 volunteers arrived on the 23 rd of November and were given an induction to sea turtle conservation, Thai culture and living in Baan Talae Nork. Night patrol started on the 25 th of November. I became aware upon this date that the volunteers from ISV had not realized the type of work that was to be carried out fully. Indeed many of them expected to be doing gibbon work and hardly any turtle work! This may have posed a problem, except for the keen converted enthusiasm of the volunteers to their newly known duties. So far night work has run well and a mention MUST go out to all the WARED staff who have been the back-bone of the operation, many of whom were drafted in for patrolling the beach unexpectedly due to the tight stipulation ISV demanded for their volunteers.
During the day some numbering of the beaches took place and will hopefully be completed shortly, preparations have taken place for an education day to take place in Baan Talae Nork school, and in the next week will take place.
On the 29 th of November 3 volunteers were taken to the opening of Suksamram school in order to meet the local governor. This was in order to encourage her to take place in the IOSEA day workshop. The social networking was a success and her view on the findings of the workshop day should be very influencial in helping save the remaining population of leatherback turtles on the beaches being patrolled by WARThai sea turtle project.
The only problem May and I can identify so far is that ISV has a lot of different priorities for their volunteers which don't always fit the demanding work of sea turtle conservation. However saying that it is seen that with the right influence and attitude many of the volunteers have no problem with this kind of work. A lot of valuable lessons have been learnt through the first group of volunteers which can be applied to the next group in order to achieve more for everyone.
Melanie my first research assistant arrived on the 27 th of Novemeber and is settling n well. Completely being thrown into the deep end, and has been a great help.
Going on on-top of all this is the preparation for the IOSEA workshop which will take place on the 13 th of December. Invitations have been posted, and it is hoped to get a good turn-out for this event.
Everything so far has been a bit chaotic but we are already well on our way to achieving all our goals for this season and many more extra. Everyone involved has been amasing, many of the Sea turtle staff doing their normal work during the day followed by a full night shift (on a regular basis). Without this kind of commitment then the project would not of been able to achieve half as much as it did this month so again I have to say a big thank you to these people.
