Usual working days are 6 days per week from 07:30 AM - 3:30 PM.
In-Water Monitoring:
A monitoring trip takes 7 hours; you will leave early in the morning and return after lunch time. Volunteers help with the preparation of boat equipment, adequate maintenance of the turtle net and will follow the instructions by the staff during the day. Once the net is set properly, volunteers will wait on the beach for any signs of capture. You will be needed for checking the net in the water.
Additionally you will assist in taking important data and samples from the animals. After an in-water trip, there is still maintenance work to do on the net and equipment so the next trip can be prepared and carried out smoothly. Sometimes we are busy like working with 3 or 4 turtles in 7 hours, and sometimes we may not catch any at all. Sea turtles mainly inhabit shallow waters (<50m) with hard substrates or coastal sea grass beds, sometimes near coral reefs. Sampling Golfo Dulce yields insights into population demographics—immature turtles, males, non-breeding females—and behavior.
Parameters Studies: identification of resident sea turtles, determine age and gender structure of resident population and habitat use and behavior.
Methods: Surveys will be conducted twice a week (weather permitting). Once a sea turtle is caught we untangle them from the net and bring them into the boat for transport to the beach. After the arrival at the beach we begin our monitoring. We take the weight of the turtle, the biometrics (weight, size of the carapace, plastron, and tail), tag them with metal tags (or record existing tag numbers), take a tissue sample (if no pre-existing tags), and record any injuries or abnormalities. Each sea turtle, depending on the size, takes 10-30 minutes to complete the needed monitoring.
Volunteers will be asked to support in:
- Carrying material and field equipment to the boat and back to the storage
- Keeping all material clean, tidy and well stocked
- Preparing and organizing the nets
- Untangling deployed nets
- Watching deployed nets to detect a sea turtles which has gotten caught
- Measuring and recording scientific data
- Restraining and carrying of sea turtles
Field Rescue and Rehabilitation Center:
If we receive or find a injury turtle to treat at our center, you will be involved in the daily care for sea turtles, which includes feeding, water change and cleaning tanks, as well as assisting our staff in taking and recording data. Our facilities are rustic, however, they follow international standards and our protocols are based on them too.
Our goal is to proceed to enhance the existing facilities and built a hospital area to improve veterinarian treatment for the sea turtles. This a great opportunity to future biologist, marine ecologists, veterinarians or environment enthusiasts because is direct involvement on sea turtle care. Patients are usually very stressed, so it is very important to
keep the area quiet so that the patient/turtle is as comfortable as possible. Part of this is keeping
the sea turtle’s water clean and the temperature at a reasonable level.
Volunteers are asked to help with:
- Tank cleaning
- Water changing
- Restraining and carrying sea turtles
- Monitoring patients progress
- Helping with removal of parasites
- Measuring and recording scientific data
Mangrove Nursery and Reforestation:Activities involve seed collection in Gulf's mangrove, preparing mud boxes, germinating seeds, watering propagules, moving small trees to reforestation area, planting where mangroves decline. You'll join field trips for new areas and seeds. The work can get dirty but rewarding. Bring old clothes, sun cream, hat, and water bottle.
Volunteer tasks:
- Gather seeds & propagules
- Mud collection for seeds
- Nursery seeding in bags
- Plant juveniles in habitat
- Nurture nursery plants
Sea grass studies:
Work in pairs to count sea grass leaves in marked nearshore areas for biomass. Every three months, we clear monitored zones to estimate sea grass bed regeneration.Key for marine ecosystems and sea turtles, it's a food source for green turtles and processes carbon, releasing oxygen. Sea grass data is lacking in Golfo Dulce, making your role in collecting the first scientific information important. Join the process, experience tide-dependent work, and grasp coastal ecosystem dynamics. Sea grass beds are critical for Golfo Dulce's sea turtle presence, providing food and vital ecosystem services. Among them are:
- Biotic community support
- Sediment stabilization
- Shoreline erosion prevention
- Suspended sediment and nutrient filtration
- Linkage with coral reefs and mangroves
- Nutrient cycle support
- Habitat for faunal assemblages
- Fish and crustacean recruitment areas
- Vital food web resources
- Carbon sink importance
- Hypoxic sediment oxygenation
- Water quality indicators
Every three months, we complete a sea grass monitoring study that consists simply of counting blades/leaves of different species of
sea grass, in an effort to monitor their status.
