Turtle Tagging
Hightide Watersports Team took a team of divers to Brightledge Reef. On the way we picked up Lotus Vermeer who works at the Bellairs Research facility in Barbados. The purpose of the trip was to seek out untagged turtles on the reef, bring them back to the cover boat, where Lotus would weigh, measure, tag, number and photo the turtles. The purpose of this exercise is that the growth rates and in addition the movements of the turtles can be monitored by divers during recreational dives on the reefs of Barbados, providing useful scientific data about movements and feeding habits.
Catching your
Turtles
This is easier than one would suspect. The team of divers consisting of Tim, John, Bill, Lara, Shae and myself were accompanied by Joseph, "AJ" and Willie. We spread out in a line across the reef swimming south. For the first few minutes all was quiet until Joseph shot forward.
Once this turtle had been taken to the surface and put onto the dive boat, Joseph returned to join us on top of the reef at about 20 metres. Almost immediately we came across another turtle and Joseph collected and took it to the surface.
Towards the end of the dive Shae picked a young turtle, about 3 years old, and Lara set about an older turtle about 12 years old.
