The world according to me....

Ghost crabs in Malaysia are colourful.

While in Cherating, Malaysia, I went to the beach early one morning to watch the sun come up on the horizon. I selected an isolated spot that had a good vantage point, and sat down to wait for dawn. As the sky gently grew brighter, I was able to see more and more of my surroundings, and I noticed lots of activity on the sand. There were dozens of ghost crabs scurrying every which way. From my perspective, I could see they were different from the species common to North and South America: the Cherating crabs had longer eye stalks and darker pigmentation. I have always thought that ghost crabs have been unfairly maligned as turtle predators. Sure, they take a few eggs and hatchlings, but they are an important part of the beach eco-system (a topic already discussed in another blog). They also can be used as an index of anthropogenic disturbance of a beach (see this paper). In Suriname I was told that if you kill enough ghost crabs in a single night, rain showers would ensue, although I was never able to conclusively verify this.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 03:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

One of the longest journeys I took was from Suriname to Toronto, when I carried freshly laid eggs from the nesting beach to the laboratory for controlled incubation. The trip began at Matapica Beach, as night fell and I began to patrol for nesting green turtles. By 01:00h, we had found two green turtles that had laid their eggs below the high tide line, which was one of the requirements for the permit. Once we had packed the eggs in the travel boxes, so began the 8km hike to the boat. There, we struck out along the Matapica canal and then the Commewijne River, towards Paramaribo. We arrived just north of Paramaribo at 07:00h, and Henk Reichart picked me up to take me to the Zorg en Hoop airport, where I had chartered a plane (photo) to Georgetown, Guyana. The takeoff was delayed as we awaited the customs officer who had to inspect the eggs. Finally, we took off and negotiated the storm clouds until we arrived in Georgetown in the afternoon. I had to wait in the airport there until the BWI flight to Toronto was scheduled to leave. I hadn’t realized that we needed to fly by way of Trinidad, where we had to change planes. This entailed further waiting in the transit lounge in Port of Spain. Eventually, the final leg of the journey began by evening of the second day. We arrived the following morning in Toronto, where I discovered that certain regulations concerning customs had changed during my brief trip, so I had to fill out more paperwork, make several phone calls, and wait. Eventually, the required paperwork was accepted and I was allowed to leave the airport with my precious cargo. I headed straight for the laboratory, where I spent the next 6 hours carefully placing eggs into individual containers that went into the incubators. Only after this, more than 48 hours after the start of my journey, did I stumble home and bring to a close one of the most tiring trips that I ever undertook.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been reading the blogs of Kelly and Chris down on Juno beach, as they begin to monitor the nesting season of leatherbacks in Florida. There are many cool things about leatherbacks: size, colour, lack of bony carapace, etc. One of the most surprising aspects of nesting leatherbacks is their loud breathing. Chris and Kelly have recorded some examples. Many people have suggested that these sounds are uncouth, but I think it just adds to the aura of attraction that leatherbacks enjoy.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)