The
Great Barrier Reef is among the many attractions that Australia has to offer.
It is also home to a huge population of marine turtles. However, because of
disease, starvation and injuries caused by discarded fishing gear, boats or the
ingestion of plastic materials and products that these gentle animals mistake
for food, marine turtles are constantly rescued and taken into care.
Fortunately, there are rehabilitation centres that take injured sea turtles
brought in from the Reef and rehabilitate them, giving them specialised care
and treatment.
A
Rehabilitation Centre for sick marine turtles on the Great Barrier Reef is
kept alive by volunteers as well as by donations from local businesses. Over
the last 10 years, the centre has seen and treated in excess of 170 sick and
injured Green, Olive Ridley and Hawksbill turtles, of which many have
contracted "floaters disease," a disease common to sea turtles.
Volunteers
offer their time and effort to assist. As you can imagine, there is feeding and
cleaning to do, tourist tours to run and turtles to rescue and release. It is a
great contribution to this self-sustainable rehabilitation centre as it could
not be run without their help. The
volunteers get something in return of course, as this is very unique and
special work and vacancies are limited. Where else would you get to be so close
with some of the most prehistoric creatures on earth?
The
centre is very much in need of additional hands that assist them in
rehabilitating these turtles while sustainable and humane practices are
promoted with the use of education initiatives to locals and tourists.
Volunteers can enjoy being close with the turtles while completing simple tasks
including cleaning turtle tanks, feeding the turtles, scratching the turtles,
performing reef monitoring research, turtle release and providing any kind of
assistance when requested. Volunteers may also enjoy a special visit to the
Intensive Care Unit where they can see local volunteers care for critically
injured or very sick turtles. Volunteers are expected to work in hot, humid, or
wet weather, depending on the season in which they visit. You do not need to
have any special skills to volunteer at this rehabilitation centre. The only
requirement for this kind of volunteering projects is a love for animals and
their welfare.
No comments:
Post a Comment