Fostering Citizen Science
One of my favorite things about my research is that it always provides an opportunity to educate and involve locals in scientific research. Each field season, I take on local volunteer- or paid-assistants.
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(Macdonal is an incredible free-diver and fisherman. He is so good at catching sea turtles that we had to ask him to slow down because we couldn't process them fast enough! He also swam back home from almost 3 km offshore one day, just because he felt like a swim.)
For our experiments, we hire a boat from the local fisherman's association out of San Juanillo and take one or two local assistants on the boat with us to help us catch turtles in the water.
(Our boat "captain", center, was incredibly helpful last season, constantly offering a hand with getting turtles on and off the boat.)
This not only provides an opportunity for our assistant to learn more about sea turtle biology and conservation, but it also opens up conversation with local fisherman about conservation issues.
One day, while our assistant was out swimming after turtles, I was moved by the in-depth discussion that I got into with our boat "captain" regarding important local conservation issues.
(Jaikel, above, is always enthusiastic about learning more about the sea turtles and our work. He also always has great questions!)
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