A dream came true! Arriving in Galapagos and being surrounded by all its incredibly rich nature! Made few friends among the giant land tortoises, this one I named Sancho! He is huge and about 100 years old!

Big excitement to get to the Charles Darwin Foundation, where I was met by Maria Jose – the Science Director, together with the fundraising team and Macarena – the scientist in charge with the joint project with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. I learned the challenges experienced by the marine turtles and the ever increasing number of speed boats here being responsible for most of their deaths. The two foundations have jointly created a program to track and study the behavior of the turtles in order to limit the boat speeds and their course in identified areas. One more year of data is needed in order to establish a model which can be then implemented. Macarena’s eyes were lightening up as she was giving me all these details about the turtles behavior.

It was my turn then to talk about my Ocean Amazon project, how I’m counting the days before meeting my SEAsters and boarding the eXXpedition boat and how we are also contributing as “citizen scientists” to a better understanding of the plastic problem on the environment. The connection was real and words were flowing! 

The day went by so quickly, far too quickly!

More adventures tomorrow!
Yours,
Irina aka Ocean Amazon

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