The Return to the Sun

Turtle Watch has started a brand new field season 2009-2010 in Phuket. We arrived in Phuket a couple of days ago and as our first task we had to travel to Bangkok to get our official research permits from the Thai authorities. The trip went well and we are happy to announce that we finally have the official documents in our hands! We were also reunited with our beloved turtles, they are growing fast and all seemed to be doing very well. Unfortunately, the turtles still have to wait a few more months before we can attach the satellite tags to them since they need to be big enough to be able to carry the trackers without them affecting the turtles swimming ability.

We also met with our local colleges and the plans for our field season are clearing up. In addition to our turtle project, this year Turtle Watch will also focus on fishery related problems in Thailand. Our first task will be to plough through the Thai regulations concerning fishery and the possibilities to track the origin of sea food items sold here and their fishing methods. In other words, the projects are very challenging but we believe that the results will be very rewarding with the help of our fantastic collaborators.