Fish nets don't just catch fish!

Just 72 hours after witnessing beautiful green turtle hatchlings racing from the beach to the ocean I get to see a full grown adult. Unfortunately this encounter happened because a fisherman had been night fishing and two had got caught in his net. Luckily our Director is passionate about turtles and has been telling the fisherman that if they cut them free she will pay to repair their nets.

So after hearing about these turtles I race to the beach, fling my shoes and socks off and run into the water getting my trousers soaking wet in the process. My first thought was, WOW that is a massive turtle and I couldn't believe they can go from being so small to so big. This guy had already had the netting cut from around it and was being released back to the ocean. Then a slightly smaller turtle was brought out of the small wooden boat and was heavily entangled in plastic netting. The fisherman worked hard to cut the turtle free and within 3 minutes they had succeeded and away it went.

This is an example of how education and incentive within the local communities can help save precious species from decreasing.

First turtle free of the net

Being set free

Once off the sand moved fast to get back to the ocean

The second smaller turtle caught in a lot of netting

Fisherman struggling to free it

A lot of netting to cut free

Doesn't look injured

Netting almost free

Last little bit to go

The turtle is free and sent off to freedom

Going

Going

Gone

The fisherman return to water

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Disclaimer:

"The views and opinions expressed in the Diary of a Primatologist blog (except guest posts) are purely my own and are not in any way linked to any organisations I may represent or work with unless otherwise stated. All photos are my own unless otherwise stated and a source will be provided where other photos are used. If they are your photos and you would like them removed please just ask. The author retains full copyright for all content and photos and written permission is required before their use. The owner of the site is not liable for any content accessed through links posted."

Diani Rules!

Last weekend I was fortunate to take part in the 24th world famous Diani Rules competition to raise money for the Kwale District Eye Center. As part of the South Coast Residents Association (SCRA) & Colobus Conservation team we played many silly beach games where the main rule was to have fun. At first we thought we would just have a laugh and enjoy ourselves, but then we started winning and got a taste for victory. The games included football with a rugby ball, tennis played with a football and your feet, volleyball, waterball as the waves came crashing in, frisbee in a hurricane, a boat race with no boats (only beer) and raft building and racing.

We actually came first and our prize was a crate of beer, accompanied by water, just in case. Here is a photo-reel to tell the story.

Forty Thieves Beach Bar, where the action took place.

Team members taking it all in before the games get underway

DJ hit it

Give me a rugby ball and I am smiling, even if it is to play football

Pre-game warm-up, hey look I am flying

Such an awesome team

Mind the frisbee

Block the frisbee with your life

Oh look, a sky diver

The water is coming in, must be time for waterball

The most amazing game I have ever played, the waves were epic.

Soaking wet but happy

Samuel is going back in

We won the first boat race (beer drinking competition) so we were up against the refs for the final

We won the boat race, twice, not sure if I should be proud about this or not

Day 2, time for a four way tug-of-war

Was great to watch the other teams struggling

The 2nd day started at 8am and two teams in our league did not show, so we had a traditional two way tug-of-war, which we won

Next was raft building, we were confident

Testing the raft before the action

I don't think this team (who are an engineering company) were taking the raft building too seriously

That was a tough event, and the raft survived

Tennisball was the final game and we rounded it off with a great win to come 1st and win more beer.

Well deserved victory drink

Also, lets not forget the real reason we all came together and that was to raise money (a fantastic KES 550,000 (£4000)) for the brilliant Kwale District Eye Center. Started in 1993 by Dr Helen Roberts here are just a few facts about what they have done and why their work is so important:

Worldwide one person goes blind every five seconds.

One child goes blind every minute.

Of the 45 million people who are completely blind, 90% live in the developing world.

In Kenya the rate of blindness is 10 times that of the western world.

One person in every hundred is totally blind, but 80% of this is preventable, over half is due to cataract.

The ratio of ophthalmologists to the population in Kenya is in the region of 1 : 1 million and they are concentrated in the cities. In UK the ratio is around 1 : 70,000.

Since 1993 the Kwale District Eye Center has helped:

Children waiting for an eye test

72,000 patients registered at their base

320,000 patients seen in the field

Over 30,000 eye operations

In remote parts of Kenya 24,000 patients have been seen     

Photo credit - Andrea Donaldson and Forty Thieves Photographer.

You can see all my photos of my time in Kenya on my Flickr page here -http://bit.ly/1dpb3gd

Or on my facebook page here - www.facebook.com/diaryofaprimatologist

Disclaimer:

"The views and opinions expressed in the Diary of a Primatologist blog (except guest posts) are purely my own and are not in any way linked to any organisations I may represent or work with unless otherwise stated. All photos are my own unless otherwise stated and a source will be provided where other photos are used. If they are your photos and you would like them removed please just ask. The author retains full copyright for all content and photos and written permission is required before their use. The owner of the site is not liable for any content accessed through links posted."