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Dissertation Project at Wildlife Sense

A project by: Simaima Petzold

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WE RAISED £1,130

from 3 donors

This project received donations on Tue 11 Apr 2017
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Working on turtle aggression behaviours with the organisation Wildlife Sense in Kefalonia, Greece.

My Turtle Dissertation Project

I am a second year BSc Marine Biology student at the University of Essex and for my third year dissertation project, I am planning on travelling to Kefalonia, Greece to work with the organisation Wildlife Sense. My project will be based on aggression behaviours of Caretta caretta (turtles), which I will be able to complete data collection for, during a 4-week placement at Wildlife Sense. During my stay in Kefalonia, I will also be helping out with long-term monitoring with other volunteers.

Studies on turtles are very important as the light pollution and water pollution cause the mortality rate to increase. Knowing more about how turtles behave, can give an insight on how we can help them and how to reduce the pollution that surrounds them.

Who am i?

My name is Simaima Petzold and I am a second year BSc Marine Biology student at the University of Essex. I am originally from Germany, however have travelled the world since a very young age. During these travels, I have discovered my love for the ocean and protecting it, because of this I am now a qualified PADI Advanced Open Water Diver

mY story

This project is for my third-year dissertation in Marine Biology. Through this, I will be working alongside the organisation Wildlife Sense in Greece to collect data on Loggerhead Sea Turtles at one of their sites, Argostoli. This is a very important cause to me as I hope that this project can give more insight into turtle behaviours, specifically aggression behaviours. This is important as Sea Turtles are classed as a very vulnerable species by the IUCN Red List, which means that their population sizes are decreasing and may possibly go extinct in the future. As there is very little research on sea turtles, especially Loggerhead Turtles, we do not have enough research to help understand how and why turtles behave in certain ways. This knowledge can then help us find ways to conserve them and through this raise their population levels.

Where will the money go?

The money that will be fundraised will go towards paying for the four week placement at Wildlife Sense, for which the minimum target is £1000. The cost break down is:

- £650 for the placement

- £250-300 for travel costs

The stretch goal is £1200, which will go towards paying for equipment that is required and funding other research on sea turtles at Wildlife Sense.

Rewards

I will be giving rewards to certain sponsors, if you have sponsored me over a certain amount of money. More information on my Click page.

Images and video

These pictures are from my previous dives with turtles in Egypt, as well as my pitch YouTube video which also discuss the aim of this project, which shows videos of my previous dives with turtles.

Find us here

For more information on the organisation, please visit www.wildlifesense.org .