While sporadic studies in previous years had identified nesting activity in Grenada, data collected by Ocean Spirits since 2000 has shown that the nesting site found at Levera beach alone is home to one of the top three populations of nesting leatherbacks in the region. Results from this initial study also revealed high levels of illegal egg poaching, which exceeded 90% poached nests at some sites. Ocean Spirits is actively tackling this issue and has considerably reduced this threat to <5% on the main index nesting beach, Levera Beach.
Working with the Government of Grenada and with expert scientific advisors from the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Network (WIDECAST), Ocean Spirits initiated a saturation tagging programme in 2002 in order to begin to study the number of individual nesting females visiting Grenada. While only spanning 750m in length, Levera beach continues to prove to be the primary index nesting site in Grenada with a high of 1,143 confirmed nests laid by over 300 turtles in 2014.
The tagging programme is ongoing and in 2005, PIT Tags (Passive Integrated Transmitters or microchips) were for the first time used in Grenada to help counter balance the incidence of external flipper tag loss in Leatherbacks. Thanks to these and traditional Monel flipper tags, we have now had confirmed tag returns from Tobago, Trinidad, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and from afar a field as Panama and Canada.
In addition to shedding light on the nesting population, the tagging programme also provided the basis upon which satellite telemetry studies were conducted in 2002 and 2003. For the first time in Grenada, nesting females were tracked away from their nesting beaches into the Atlantic and ultimately on to their cooler feeding grounds around the Canadian, British and West African coasts. The newly designed transmitters also recorded the diving profile of these animals recording phenomenal dives of up to 1.2 km in depth, making the leatherback the deepest diving reptile in the world.
Back on Levera beach, nests are monitored for hatching activity and excavations are conducted to determine the fate of each egg and nest hatching success. In addition, the process of excavation has meant that hatchlings have been released from hatching complications that would have otherwise resulted in their death.
Volunteer With Us
We can't do it with out you! Volunteers are an essential part of Ocean Spirits and provide the project with the support to collect our research and teach conservation to many school students each season. As a research volunteer, you become part of a small team of dedicated staff and become vital in working together to enable Ocean Spirits to achieve its goals. Volunteering with the world’s largest sea turtle is a once in a lifetime opportunity for many. If you are ready to give up some of your home comforts in exchange for sand between your toes and sea turtles this is the project for you!
Your first night with Ocean Spirits is spent enjoying a locally cooked dinner with fellow new and present volunteers and the project house staff getting to know each other. The next day will be spent on an orientation of the local area and nesting beaches, data collection training and sea turtle biology presentations, with a popular cool down dip in the ocean before dinner.
You will then spend your volunteering time monitoring nesting sea turtles and assisting hatchlings with some early morning patrols at sunrise and all night patrols measuring turtles, tagging, counting eggs and relocating nests when needed beneath the stars. Throughout the day you will join in beach profiling, coastal beach surveys, nest excavations (May-Aug), sea turtle junior rangers program, school visits, summer camps and community awareness days.
But don’t worry there is still plenty free time to explore the island with lush rainforests, cooling waterfalls, spice markets, cocoa plantations, rum distilleries, snorkeling and much more!
The contributions, dedication and commitment are vital to our project growth. Each volunteer opportunity, although different, contributes an important part to the Organisation as a whole. In short, without volunteer participation the project would not be possible.
