My Turtle Tagging Progress...

Hello! I finally have a chance to update my blog with pictures and info, and it may be the last before I return home to the states. Things have been going great! I have already learned so much just being here for 4 days. As I stated before there are 4 tagging strategies: swimming, netting, jumping and chasing. Swimming is when you swim in snorkel gear on top of the turtle after you have tired him out by chasing him with the boat (or her). You then make sure you are a little bit ahead of him in the water so you can dive down and grab him under his front flippers from behind (i.e. sort of under his armpits). This is the most successful method for me, but I have also mastered the jumping method, which I will mention shortly. The next is netting which is pretty self explanatory, you wait until you have a good shot at the turtle, dip the net into the water, and bring him up to the boat. Jumping (very exciting) is done once the turtle has been tired out, but can be done when he or she is still full of energy. You stand on the front of the boat while the turtle is near you in the water and simply jump down into the water with no gear on (either dive or belly-flop) right down to the turtle and carefully grab him and bring him up. Chasing is not a true method but can be very useful and successful at times. To chase a turtle is when the turtle is swimming in very shallow water and you can simply step from the boat to the water and run after the turtle. All of these methods are done very carefully and absolutely no harm is caused to any of the turtles. Once the turtles are caught, they are brought up onto the boat to await tagging. We catch as many turtles collectively in one location as we can before actually tagging them, this is so when the turtles are released they remain in their original location and are not removed from their natural place in the habitat. The actual tagging process is just how I imagined it to be. The turtles are measured, weighed, tagged, noted for any flaws or injuries, and then gently released back into the blue! We have caught many turtles while I have been here, and they all have been Green Sea Turtles (very cute). I will show some pictures of the happenings below, or above? I will probably not be able to update my blog again, and I do not want to ramble on about all the many things that I have left out (i.e. there are so many interesting stories and details to tell!). But, if you post comments on my blog I can reach that from my cell phone and respond back with my twitter posts, which I will keep up to date daily! So here are some pictures and please shoot some questions my way!