Over the last two days, Equipo Tora Carey (ETC) hosted a French TV program concerning the relation between wildlife and human beings – especially children. The name of this TV show is « Les animaux de la 8 » (The Animals of Channel 8).
We started Tuesday, May 30th with an interview about the scientific work of ETC with the rays of Bahia Cuajiniquil and Bahia Salinas, and also the environmental connection and knowledge that the kids of « Los Protectores del Medio Ambiente » club have acquired.
Over a homemade lunch at Kembly’s, we enjoyed a pleasant exchange between community members of el Jobo and the TV crew. After lunch we went to Rajada Beach to meet The Turtle Man, Randall, who explained everything about the amazing job ETC and its research assistants are doing every night! This includes tagging turtles, nest protection, and monitoring and protecting the nest hatching.
The surprise of the TV crew was apparent as they began to understand the passion of the local people to learn more and to keep protecting these animals.
We ended the day by counting native parrot species (loras in Spanish) together and discussing why scientific protocols are important. They interviewed ETC volunteer Iris to learn about her experience as a volunteer and how it has changed her.
We finished this amazing experience Wednesday morning with a boat trip to Isla Muñeca with the research assistants Randall and Marlon. We were not able to see any turtles at this feeding site because of the bad weather conditions, but we had the opportunity to show them the diversity of fish we have in our waters, and to explain how we carry out the data collection with a live turtle. This helped the TV Crew understand the process and also the importance of our work.
This amazing experience was (rewarding and tiring) but it showed us how everybody can do their part in wildlife conservation and how working together as a team can make those experiences easier and more efficient ! That is the ETC way!
TOGETHER we have the POWER to CHANGE things !