Site Recon "DDI"
Off the northwest peninsula of Trinidad in the "Bocas" between Trinidad and Venezuela, lie a number of small islands known as the Bocas Islands. This area is better known locally as "Down D Islands" or "DDI", and is a popular spot for recreational boat trips to fish, spearfish, snorkel and scuba dive, and especially to spend a day at the beach, or to spend a few days at guest houses or camping.
The area also hosts several potential habitats for sea turtles including nesting beaches, seagrass beds and macroalgae beds, as well as reef communities. We have been receiving many turtle reports for this area and on 15th February 2023 a team of five armed with cameras set out by boat to conduct a reconnaissance survey at Turtle Bay (Monos Island) and Scotland Bay (mainland Trinidad), to describe the available habitat, confirm the presence of sea turtles and capture photos of sea turtles.
Several juvenile Green turtles were observed from the boat and while snorkelling. It was easier to detect and view the turtles at the surface from the boat than try to find them underwater due to limited visibility and the turtles' behaviour which led them to keep their distance from snorkellers. In the future we plan to concentrate our efforts on capturing photos of sea turtles at the surface, to hopefully gather sufficient quality photos to allow us to identify and count unique individuals.
The benthic habitat provided plentiful food for Green turtles - we observed the seagrass Halophila decidiens (paddle grass), the green algae Caulerpa, and a mixture of several other species of algae.
As the project progresses, and we gather information about potential sea turtle hotspots, we plan to execute more trips around T&T to explore the available habitats.
Stay tuned!
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