It was amazing to be able to live in paradise, work with kind and passionate people, do work I believed in, and to tag along on Conservancy programs with the BHIC interns.
My research project was inspired by the knowledge that development was threatening the nearly pristine beaches and nesting habitat of Bald Head. I hoped that my research would be able to make a difference, give the Conservancy a fighting point when advocating against development...I'm not sure what will come of my research, but I can say that I learned a lot from my project and that conservation can be the economically sound choice.
The abstract of my paper reads:
Sea turtles produce value for Bald Head Island (BHI), NC that is difficult to quantify because sea turtles are a non-market good. It is important to find an estimate for this value, however, so that it may be included in any cost-benefit analysis conducted when making development decisions for the area. In this study, I administered a survey to residents and visitors of BHI to gather data for contingent valuation, travel-cost analysis, as well as an estimate of possible ecotourism revenue for a year in order to arrive at an estimate of the total value of having sea turtles nest on BHI beaches in 2012. The resulting total value of sea turtles on BHI including both use and non-use values was over $49 million. This is no small sum of money, and suggests that there are strong economic incentives to conserve sea turtles.
The best part of my time on the island, however, was not conducting my research but aiding in excavations!! Below is a journal entry from my personal journal:
"Yesterday was excavation day. Three days after a sea turtle nest hatches, the staff of the Bald Head Island Conservancy will dig up the nest to see what the success of the nest was. How many eggs hatched? How many didn't? Are there sea turtles who died on the way out? Are there little hatchlings who are still alive?
They found 19 live hatchlings. 19 hatchlings who just weren't quite strong enough to make it out of the nest. 19 hatchlings who needed an extra push to find their way. They were so little...and so cute.
I looked at Alyssa, the sea turtle coordinator, with a look that said it all. Please let me hold one!!! She picked up a little sea turtle, made her way to me, and placed the little guy into my anxious hands. How incredible to hold something so small and so full of life. I looked into the little sea turtle's eyes. I had one of those moments...where everything feels connected. This little sea turtle was speaking to me. Screaming with all the passion I had forgotten along the way.
I marveled at how strong he was. My little guy was a fighter. He tried so hard to escape from my hands, and every next 30 seconds I was sure that he would succeed and the world would hate me for dropping something so precious and so delicate. For a straggler, he was so filled with life!!! So much energy...such an incredible will to live. Like seeing the sun for the first time had given him all the assurance he ever needed. I felt so much pride, feeling him wiggle in my hand. This guy was a fighter. He would make it. I had to hold him tighter to ensure he didn't fly out of my hands, and even then he only fought back harder. I didn't want to squeeze too hard and hurt him so I just looked at him and prayed. I prayed that he would go out there...make it through the whole beautiful circle of life...one day find his way back to these waters (if 'he' turned out to be a 'she')...
I got to take him around to all the people who had come to watch the excavation. Show them this little turtle, answer all their questions. I let people take pictures. I held the little turtle close to the pure and curious faces of children whose eyes spoke only wonder. Genuine wonder. And I heard them whisper to the turtle. Little girls saying, "You can do it!!" "Good luck little guy!" ...saying little prayers for this little turtle. So many people filled with so much love...these kids looked at this little turtle and bestowed upon it all their greatest wishes. And it was so beautiful.
And then. I got to release this little sea turtle to the ocean. Walk to the tide line. Set him in the sand. And watch him alternate his flippers until his little head felt the water for the first time in his life. Amidst all the prayers and wishes and flipper tracks...I watched this little creature begin his life journey.
And in these precious hours. It all made sense to me. Why I do, what I do. Nothing could make me doubt in that moment that what I did mattered. I had been struggling with too many existential questions about the purpose of life...my life, trying to find meaning in my every day...get past the simple evolutionary reasons for my birth. But that morning, watching the sea turtle make it's way into the endless ocean...hearing the prayers of little children...the importance of what I was doing was unmistakeable. That little sea turtle wanted to live. No one can tell me otherwise. And those hearts around me. Young and old. They wanted, with so much more of them than I could ever have imagined, for him to live too. And I was able to help give this little sea turtle that chance...the chance for life that we all deserve. Suddenly, everything I've done to get to that moment was irrefutably worthwhile.
So that's why I'm here. And this is what I'm going to do."
Needless to say, I will carry the summer of 2012 with me for the rest of my life.
"Yesterday was excavation day. Three days after a sea turtle nest hatches, the staff of the Bald Head Island Conservancy will dig up the nest to see what the success of the nest was. How many eggs hatched? How many didn't? Are there sea turtles who died on the way out? Are there little hatchlings who are still alive?
They found 19 live hatchlings. 19 hatchlings who just weren't quite strong enough to make it out of the nest. 19 hatchlings who needed an extra push to find their way. They were so little...and so cute.
I looked at Alyssa, the sea turtle coordinator, with a look that said it all. Please let me hold one!!! She picked up a little sea turtle, made her way to me, and placed the little guy into my anxious hands. How incredible to hold something so small and so full of life. I looked into the little sea turtle's eyes. I had one of those moments...where everything feels connected. This little sea turtle was speaking to me. Screaming with all the passion I had forgotten along the way.
I marveled at how strong he was. My little guy was a fighter. He tried so hard to escape from my hands, and every next 30 seconds I was sure that he would succeed and the world would hate me for dropping something so precious and so delicate. For a straggler, he was so filled with life!!! So much energy...such an incredible will to live. Like seeing the sun for the first time had given him all the assurance he ever needed. I felt so much pride, feeling him wiggle in my hand. This guy was a fighter. He would make it. I had to hold him tighter to ensure he didn't fly out of my hands, and even then he only fought back harder. I didn't want to squeeze too hard and hurt him so I just looked at him and prayed. I prayed that he would go out there...make it through the whole beautiful circle of life...one day find his way back to these waters (if 'he' turned out to be a 'she')...
I got to take him around to all the people who had come to watch the excavation. Show them this little turtle, answer all their questions. I let people take pictures. I held the little turtle close to the pure and curious faces of children whose eyes spoke only wonder. Genuine wonder. And I heard them whisper to the turtle. Little girls saying, "You can do it!!" "Good luck little guy!" ...saying little prayers for this little turtle. So many people filled with so much love...these kids looked at this little turtle and bestowed upon it all their greatest wishes. And it was so beautiful.
And then. I got to release this little sea turtle to the ocean. Walk to the tide line. Set him in the sand. And watch him alternate his flippers until his little head felt the water for the first time in his life. Amidst all the prayers and wishes and flipper tracks...I watched this little creature begin his life journey.
And in these precious hours. It all made sense to me. Why I do, what I do. Nothing could make me doubt in that moment that what I did mattered. I had been struggling with too many existential questions about the purpose of life...my life, trying to find meaning in my every day...get past the simple evolutionary reasons for my birth. But that morning, watching the sea turtle make it's way into the endless ocean...hearing the prayers of little children...the importance of what I was doing was unmistakeable. That little sea turtle wanted to live. No one can tell me otherwise. And those hearts around me. Young and old. They wanted, with so much more of them than I could ever have imagined, for him to live too. And I was able to help give this little sea turtle that chance...the chance for life that we all deserve. Suddenly, everything I've done to get to that moment was irrefutably worthwhile.
So that's why I'm here. And this is what I'm going to do."
Needless to say, I will carry the summer of 2012 with me for the rest of my life.
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