very close to their stomach. That way we are feeding animals severely injured
because of their debilitated state. We also do it on animals that have ingested
fishing lines and other debris, as a way of providing them with the necessary
medications internally. We have to feed them and prepare the tube feed; it is
a very important task. Preparation of the food is done individually for every
single turtle, because they have very different requirements, some are not
able to eat on their own, some aren't able to dive but they can eat, so we
have to feed them by hand, using forceps.
What do you feed them with?
It depends, it is actually a variety of different species of fish. To clarify; in the
wild they are not eating fish - they are too quick for them to catch. Here we
are provided with different species of fish for free. We have some specific
sponsors. We also give them squid quite often; it is not very nutritious but it
gives them good variety. We also give them shrimps and sea shells as well. In
general, in the wild sea turtles eat many different species, they are
omnivorous, they can be opportunistic as well, so depending on the
environment their diet may vary. And I am talking mainly about the species of
loggerhead sea turtles, this is the majority of the turtles we are getting here.
Seems like a very hard and demanding job... When it comes to
volunteers, is the interest high or do you have to look for them?
We are very, very satisfied that there are many people around the world that
would like to come and help, so it is quite high. We have some periods like
the Christmas holiday, when we have a little bit of trouble to have a specific
number of volunteers in order to do things like we should. But apart from
that couple of periods of time during the year, we don’t have a problem.
Especially during the spring or summer we are completely booked, that is