I am here for the ladies.

Last Saturday night, I saw my first female...turtle, that is. Melissa and I had just gotten off the beach after an exciting turtle walk, topped off with the capture of a particularly pissed off ghost crab. As we were leaving the parking lot we heard, "We have emergence 202, next will be 203" windily crackle over the radio.

Without hesitation we turned left out of the beach deck parking lot and sped down Beachview Drive, stopping at the Hampton Inn and then at Glory Dock to get back to the sand and spot the latest lady.

No turtle.

Finally, we were able to get a hold of turtle patrol who had previously been too busy with their new mama turtle. She was just north of the convention center, no more than a kilometer from where we had started. Again, we raced in 1960's Batmobile fashion (theme music and all) back up Jekyll's coast to find our lady loggerhead.

We got there while she was still digging her nest chamber. Soon after, she started dropping egg. At that point, with mama in a trance, we were able to approach her and watch as this lady laid in the moonlight. 45 minutes later, she started to close up shop and Turtle Patrol went to work, dressing her with her flipper and PIT tags, and taking a skin sample for a mitochondrial DNA study.

When they got what they needed it was off to the next one for Turtle Patrol.

I stayed to see her off to sea. The nesting ritual has a spiritual quality. This same ritual has gone on for millions of years; far longer than any of the world's religions. This turtle doesn't know about environmental policy or coastal development. She knows about eating, mating and nesting and does as she always has (since she was about 30 anyway) and as the millions of generations of sea turtle before her had.

Until then, I hadn't seen a nesting female sea turtle. I have been working in sea turtle conservation for the better part of a year and always felt kind of like a poseur. The people I have worked with both in DC and in South GA had not just seen it, but seen it hundreds of times. They all, though, remember their first ladies, just as I will remember JICc78, and get just as excited with each emergence.

I have included a key for those of you having trouble deciphering the phone pic taken through our night vision monocular (Sarah Hoyt)

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Faces of Kam

I was trying to describe this face via Skype:

This is what came out:

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Two Pieces of Trash

As a 5 year old, itching to get to the pool, bound by the back seat of an '89 Mustang, I would get mega-annoyed by my mother's constant stopping to pick up "just one more piece of trash." I couldn't understand why she would pick up one piece of trash, let alone many pieces, or even, every piece she saw.

Twenty years later, I find myself unconsciously picking up trash. Be it on the streets of Washington DC, along a hiking trail, or in the muddy sand of Driftwood Beach, I can't stand the look of garbage on the ground. If I keep on walking, that Catholic guilt that I have been working so hard to get rid of cuts a hole right into my stomach.

The problem here is that once you start picking up trash, when do you stop? Is every day going to be a trash clean up service project? That would turn just about every place you go into a chore.

So as not to pick up trash all day everyday, I have made a goal to pick up and throw away 2 pieces every time I am at the beach (which is every day). This won't make much impact by myself, but if everyone made sure to pick up just 2 pieces of trash every time they went to the beach, we'd surely have clean beaches someday.

This is no Mike Donohoe original, but it's an idea worth spreading.

Happy World Oceans Day!

http://www.theoceanproject.org/wod/
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That time I couch surfed through DC: Sept 15-April 4

From September 15-March 31, I interned with Conservation International's Sea Turtle Flagship Program. Initially I was only to be in DC until mid-December, but I was asked to stay on until the end of March after proving that I was worth keeping for a minute or two.

A lot of blog posts should have come out of this trip, and a lot of blog posts may yet, but to get everyone up to date, I have assembled a collage documenting my time in DC.

DC in 20 run-on sentences/fragments:

September 14: Packed everything I own in to Lucy's trunk, drove through the night, slept in CI's parking garage before showering at Caribou Coffee and showing up at CI's offices bright eyed and bushy tailed. Began living in DC. Ate multiple free meals a week care of CI's multiple meetings around lunch and dinner time. Lost my wallet, no access to cash, got third in a dance competition trying to win $100. Made new friends.

Learned about the metro, battled the Orange line many a morn. Drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on my way through MD for blue crabs. Went out for Halloween, made my costume for free with CI's printer. Celebrated 15 or so birthdays with Moe's Southwestern Grill. Explored the Mall.

Maxed out on samples at each of DC's farmer's markets. Won a free pair of sandals for being hilarious. Took the train from DC to CT, stopping in NYC. Battled the Blizzard of 2010. Made new friends with DC's Surfriders.

Went skiing for the first time at Wisp. Couldn't figure out how to get free falafels,but ate as many as possible anyway. Lived in my car, DC, NoVA, MD. Helped produce SWOT Report, made a music video. April 4: Drove home.

DC was an incredible test of strength. Strength that stemmed from the support of my friends and family. Without their couches and toilet paper, there is no way I could have made it through.

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