Wenjing` Zhang crowdfunding with University of Essex

Help us get to Kefalonia and save the turtles!

We are raising £ 3,200 as a group of four people, to be able to volunteer for 2 weeks for Wildlife Sense, a sea turtle research and conservation organisation in Kefalonia, Greece.

ABOUT US

We are Victor Yeung, Tatjana, Mei Yi from the Law department and Pamela from the department of Psychology.

We have always been interested in the animals, especially the wildlife and the endangered species.

Besides that, we think that the Wildlife Sense project is a good opportunity for us to learn and help out to protect the sea turtles which are at the risk of extinction. For instances, we can get hands on experience about protecting the nests of the sea turtle from being destroyed by human or natural threat and track the progression of incubation and hatching of the sea turtle as well as learn to improve the method of preserve the sea turtles eggs and the population of sea turtles.

ABOUT WILDLIFE SENSE

Wildlife Sense is a sea turtle research & conservation organization based on the beautiful island of Kefalonia, Greece. Its mission is to protect endangered sea turtles and their natural habitats, offer a unique learning experience to the volunteers who join its efforts, and promote public awareness. Every year, sea turtles migrate to Kefalonia to forage and reproduce. Female turtles lay their eggs on the sandy beaches of the island. They make significant efforts to find the most suitable locations for their nests, but human and natural threats damage and destroy many eggs. The turtles themselves are regularly injured or killed by accidental boat strikes, entrapment in fishing gear, or after swallowing plastics. These threats push the sea turtles of Kefalonia closer to the brink of extinction.

As part of the team, the volunteers will survey the beaches of Kefalonia to find and protect sea turtle nests. Our survey teams cycle to the beaches in the early morning, walk along the golden sand looking for fresh turtle nests, then then mark, measure, and protect all nests that were laid during the previous night. The primary goal is to protect sea turtle nests against accidental damage and monitor their progress throughout incubation to the hatching stage. As the young turtles hatch, we do our best to protect them from light pollution and assure they can safely crawl to the sea. After all healthy hatchlings have left the nests, you will conduct nest inventories to assess the fate of every egg and the hatching success of each nest. This helps us continuously improve our conservation methods and maximize the reproductive success of Kefalonia's sea turtle population.Light pollution and storms are the two primary threats to sea turtle nests in Kefalonia. An important part of your field work will comprise of environmental studies to quantify light pollution and determine its source, and measuring the continuous changes of the nesting beaches and the distance of the water from nests. With this data, our team will be able to assess the risk to each nest and take timely actions to prevent any harm.

The Wildlife Sense project fee costs £410 each and includes:

⁃ Two-week long volunteering experience with sea turtles;

⁃ Full training and ongoing supervision;

⁃ Accommodation in apartments shared with the rest of the team

⁃ Researcher t-shirt.

Howeverr, we will still have to pay for the following:
1. Flights (around £300 each)
1. Food costs as we will have to cook our own meals (roughly €80) or we can either opt for a vegetarian €30 food kitty
2. Personal expenses (approximately €100-150)
In total we will roughly spend £900 each and in four people it will be £3600. Please help us succeed!