Mini-Symposium on the Goals and Status of Research in Ostional, Costa Rica
I have been fortunate enough to have received the LT Jordan Fellowship two years in a row to support my field research. As part of the agreement I had with the board for this year, I wanted to challenge myself to step up my efforts to increase the level of communication between the local community stakeholders, government officials working to protect the turtles and the scientists which are studying the turtles in Ostional.
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| From left to right, Vanessa Bezy, Chris Figgener and Brie Myre, featured scientists at the symposium. |
One way I
reached this goal this year is by publishing more information specifically
about my project via this blog and social media, but a major event I put
together was a small symposium which featured 3 young female scientists and
their work on the arribada in Ostional, Guanacaste. It turned out to be a very interesting event as we invited
government officials, international volunteers, students, local wildlife guides
and more to hear our presentations. We were really pleased with the turnout and
the discussions that were sparked by our results.
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I started
with a presentation regarding my work in Ostional on using hormones to determine
the feeding status of olive ridleys and the comparison of solitary and arribada
nesting females. I ended my presentation with a discussion of how vital cultural education is for researchers working in countries outside of their own. I emphasized that staying with host families and working with locals on the boat and beach are an essential part of the program that I've developed for my students because they learn what life is really like for the people here. They also have more opportunities to learn a new language and compare their own home lives, cultural perspective and family dynamics to what they have experienced. The most challenging aspect of this for me was formulating my
arguments and ideas in Spanish. I was very proud to show the community and my colleagues how much my Spanish has improved over my three seasons here.
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| Chris Figgener presenting her results. |
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| Celebrating and debriefing after an exciting symposium. |
The
symposium also featured preliminary results by Vanessa Bezy, who is using a
variety of techniques including drones and pheromones to investigate the
signals which may be triggering the mass-nesting behavior.
Our final
speaker for the day was Chris Figgener, who has reached worldwide notoriety for
her viral video removing a straw from the nostril of a sea turtle, you can see
the video here. Her presentation was showing satellite tracking data from
solitary and arribada turtles following their final nest of the year.
The
discussion following the final presentation was quite animated. We discussed
current egg harvest practices and how estimates of number of nesting turtles
during the arribada have changed and debate over whether or not these practices
are improving.
The following day was my 28th birthday and my colleague and friend Chris and my advisor, Duncan surprised me with a fabulous birthday cake! It was by far the best cake I've ever had.
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| My birthday cake celebrating my 28th birthday. |
