Greece Day 2

Today was very similar to the routine of yesterday. We spent most of the morning cleaning out tanks and cleaning turtles. I also chlorinated a few tanks as well, this meant after I had scrubbed the tank I scrubbed chlorine around the tank, left for 10mins and then rinsed 3 times before refilling the tank. I cleaned out two small tanks and Adam cleaned 3 tanks, one of them a large one. I also helped prepare the food for the turtles this morning. For this we have a spreadsheet with the turles names, the weight of fish and the size the chunks need to be and feeding method. Some of the turtles are smaller and can only eat XS pieces but some need L pieces etc. On wednesdays vitamins are added to the fish. We started preparing the food by defrosting the fish and then preparing the hand feed turtles first. These are the turtles who don't always eat so have to be hand fed, if they won't eat it we try 3 times (once an hour) and after the 3rd attempt leave in tank until evening. For the turtles that eat well their food can be chucked into the tanks. Some of the larger turtles nearer being released have whole fish poked into PVC pipes for enrichment. After checking the name and weight of fish needed I'd weigh out the fish and then cut them to the size needed. I then found the lollipop stick with the turtles name on (they all have one) and put all the peices in a small bucket with the name tag. I then had to write how many peices were cut and the time of the attempts to feed.

2 turtles were taken for release in the afternoon so the more experienced volunteers went with them to the beach and Amy, Adam and I were left with Florentine for the PM tasks. Adam and I cleaned and chlorinated one of the big tanks ready for Sprite to be moved into. Once she was moved we finished the feeding rounds, washed and hung towels and washed buckets, bowls etc. I emptied the chlorine bucket and we tidied up. During the afternoon there was a huge thunderstorm! I wuickly got all the dry towels in and we waited inside for a bit while the storm passed. The rain was so heavy and once it stopped and the sun came out again the floor was all flooded outside! Once the others arrived back from the release we had a few more feeds to do and then we were finished with the tasks around 6pm. After that Adam had to stay at the RC with Neils for the night and the rest of us came back to the apartment.