Hatchery Finished!

Wednesday, July 11^th

We FINALLY finished the roof on the main hatchery, leveled all of the sand, and painted the inside. It is just in time for this weekend, which is the inauguration of the sea turtle nesting season. Now we just have to finish the El Rosario hatchery and clean the parque up for the visitors that are supposed to be coming.

During the middle of the day (aka when it is scorching hot), we usually take a little time off to nap/rest/take time off. Today, TJ (one of the volunteers) and I decided to take the parque’s two kayaks into the mangroves. It was much better than going in the boat because the birds weren’t as frightened by us. We had a great time going into the nooks and crannies of the mangroves as well as enjoying the sunshine and birds. 

My favorite bird spotting was a juvenile night heron. It was so cute and fluffy and surprisingly not scared of us at all!

 The juvenile night heron!

 

However, our trip took a somber note when we decided to walk back on the beach instead of walking the main road. We found two dead brown pelicans, many fish, and a dead possum (the possum seems to be separate and unrelated). The culprit for the death of the marine animals most likely was the shrimp boat that we have seen on the horizon for the past couple days. When they cast their nets, they catch not only shrimp, but various fish and often turtles. Luckily, we didn’t see any turtles wash up. We are guessing that the two pelicans that we saw got caught in the net while trying to eat some fish and ended up either breaking their necks or drowning. This is probably one of the main reasons why I don’t eat seafood. Most of the time, catching one type of sea creature actually results in the death of many others unnecessarily. 

The shrimp boat in question

The dead brown pelican (COASST shoutout!) 

 

When we got back to the parque, we found out that some of the other volunteers had rescued a live pelican that had been caught in a net. We caught some fish for it, but I think the bird was too stressed to eat. It looks like it might have an injured wing and we are unsure if the bird will be able to make it. Fingers crossed!