Turtle Summer - Week 7
August 6, 2023 - August 13, 2023
The final week of my time as a volunteer has begun, starting off with a very relaxing day. Since I only had a cooking shift I could join my friends on a day trip to Lake Zaros. In this lake, there are little freshwater turtles (yes, even in our free time we can’t get away from the turtles). We walked around the lake, chatted, and enjoyed our day. Since we only stayed at the lake for a short while, we had time to explore Agia Galini on our way back. Such a cute little sea side town, that was great to explore. Fortunately, as I came back, everyone decided they wanted gyros for dinner, so we got some from a local taverna and ate it at sunset on the beach. What a nice and calm day it was.
Since hatching season was in full swing, we also had to get trained for excavations. Excavations happen 10 days after the first hatching event of a nest. After these 10 days, the likelihood of anything hatching anymore is extremely small, so we dig up the nest, open the unopened eggs, and count everything that’s in the nest. Since these nests have been cooking in the sand for anywhere between 55 and 70 days (incubation period + 10 days), the unopened eggs don’t smell great. Since hatchlings don’t have a great chance of survival, the nests can be pretty big. Many of the eggs might be unfertilised, a lot of the embryos don’t make it past a certain stage, and many of the live hatchlings will not make it to adulthood. It may be sad, but it’s the way of life.
Excavation!
Excavations are super important for data collection, but they can be disgusting to say the least.
I LOVE IT
When opening the unopened eggs, we check if there are any bacteria in there (based of the colour of the egg white), what stage the embryo stopped developping, and any other interesting information we might find. Did you know that reptiles are very prone to genetic mutations? This means that you might find albino embryos, embryos with one big eye, conjoined twins, etc. These will only very, very rarely make it out of their eggs, let alone to adulthood. Though the excavations are pretty gross, it’s probably one of my favourite shift since they’re so fascinating! I just had to make sure that when opening an egg, I turn it down so the goo won’t squirt in my face.
Dead embryo
This is what an embro looks like. This one had stopped developping for whatever reason it may be. The black part is the turtle, and as you can see it’s wrapped over the egg yolk
That night, I had gotten a call on the ‘hell phone’ (a phone that tourists or locals can call if there are any hatchlings or adult turtle emergencies). This person on the phone let me know that there was yet another nesting turtle on Màtala beach. I would like to mention here that this was the fourth nest we had on Màtala beach, which was very rare since it’s a small beach with a lot of human activity.
The next day, my friend and I decided to go to red beach. Red beach is on the other side of the hill and the beach got its name from the red colour of the sand. Except for walking over the hill, there aren’t many ways to get to red beach. There are a few bars there, so we decided to hike up and go for a drink. We had such a great time together talking about anything and everything, having drinks, and going for a swim whenever we got too hot.
Red Beach
On our way to Red Beach. A little climb up the hill, but rewarded with a nice view, some cocktails on red beach and just over all a great day with my friend!
After a day with even more excavations, I had my last morning survey and it was probably one of the best ones, thanks to my good team. We helped one hatchling to sea, found one adult track of an adult that was missing a flipper, and reburied one hatchling. Very grateful to have such a good last morning survey.
The only shifts I had left on my last two days were On Call and Kiosk. On my last full day in Màtala, my kiosk mate and I even made my record amount of sales of my stay. Ending on a high note, I suppose. After my kiosk shift, I packed up my stuff (I was going to sleep in my friend’s tent that night so I wouldn’t have to pack early in the morning), grabbed some gyros and once more hiked up the hill on the way to red beach with some friends. We watched the beautiful sunset, and to our luck there was a massive meteor shower that night. Though some people headed down for shifts or when it got too cold, my friend and I stayed up there for quite a while and we saw so many shooting stars! Not only that, but every now and then, a massive meteor past by seemingly very close to us.
When it got too cold even for us, we too headed down, and I got to go out one last time. I had such a good time.
The next morning, I took a bus to Heraklion, where friends from home were going to pick me up because we were going to have some vacation before I flew back to the Netherlands.
Goodbye Mátala!
Spent my last night in Mátala watching the meteor shower from this hill, going out, and feeling sad to be leaving the turtles, the town, and my new friends.
Some final thoughts on my time volunteering for the sea turtles of Greece. First and foremost, I look back on these seven weeks very fondly. Though there have been quite low lows with some stuff that happened as I explained in an earlier post, the highs were so high that I regret nothing. I’ve met wonderful people and I feel so incredibly lucky to have seen and done the things that I have. From nesting turtles, to hatchings, to excavations, these are things not a lot of people get to witness and I feel so priviliged. Not only that, but I have learned so much about these beautiful animals. It has made me even more excited to get into conservation work as a career. Twenty years from now, I would love to come back to Màtala, see the nests, and imagine that these nest are laid by ‘my’ hatchlings.
What an incredible summer.
