"She's not a green, she's just big-boned"

One of our larger lady greens

Sometime around 7:00 tonight, as we were headed over to Buck in the boat, the sea turtles must have had a meeting and plotted to all come ashore to nest at the exact same time, because around 8:30 we had no fewer than 5 turtles on the beaches.  They kept us scrambling to keep up until almost midnight.  Not all nested, which was unfortunate but helpful for our sanity.  After that deluge, we had no more turtles the rest of the night.  I’m thinking a conspiracy…

Just in case some of you were under any misconceptions about the life of a wildlife biologist, let me try to clear them up.  Sure, we get to see every Caribbean sunset and sunrise and, believe me, they are beautiful.  But while we might be living at a beach resort and working on a secluded tropical island, our nights aren’t all fun and games.  That said, we’re all here for a reason—because we believe in conservation and we like what we do.  But it’s a very physical job, and we have to bring in all our equipment by boat and then haul it around on our backs.  When you’re walking up to 10 miles a night in deep sand with a heavy pack; when it’s 3am and you’re bored because you haven’t had a single turtle all night; when you’re tired enough to sleep sitting propped against your pack or curled up on the oh-so-soft concrete dock; when you’re bitten by mosquitoes, gnats, and fire ants (sometimes all at the same time); when you’re hot and sweaty and covered in sand or sitting in the pouring rain waiting for a turtle to lay; when some or all of these happen in a night and you’re still not miserable, then you know you’re in the right line of work.  And as physically demanding as the work is on your body, as difficult as the hours are on your mind, I’ve definitely come to this conclusion.