Going green

Going Green….

Everyone is talking about going green! Saving the planet, saving endangered species and living greener healthier more sustainable lives. I recently completed my open water dive qualification in Thailand (http://www.godiveblog.com/2010/05/congratulations-for-new-diver-nicole.html) and was incredibly lucky to see a wild Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) turtle on my very first open water dive! I was so inspired by the beautiful creature I decided to start a fundraising project called Tag a Turtle. Together with Blue Reef Aquarium (http://www.bluereefaquarium.co.uk/), The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) (http://www.mcsuk.org/ ), Dr Brendan Godley from Exeter University (http://www.exeter.ac.uk/ )and Atlantic Diver (http://www.atlanticdiver.co.uk/ ) in Newquay myself and fellow BSc graduate and friend Nicola Morris are aiming to raise £3000 to purchase a satellite tag to tag the next injured turtle that is rehabilitated by Blue Reef in order to track its progress once it has been released. This post-release monitoring has not been done by Blue Reef Aquarium before and they are receiving more and more washed up and injured turtles each year. The rehabilitated turtle will be flown out to Gran Canaria for acclimatitazion before being tagged and released off the Canary Islands. Check out www.seaturtle.org/tracking to see other projects that have tracked juvenile loggerhead turtles released from the Canary Islands. One of the most exciting fundraising adventures in store is a sponsored cage shark dive off the Cornish coast in September this year, more details on how to sponsor and get involved will be here soon! Check out these amazing photos taken by our Thai friend It-ngam Nareekarn of a Hawksbill Turtle in the Andaman Sea. Enjoy!
Regards Nic