Island Times Blog

Hey guys! My name is Jenna Steele and I’ve been home now for about two months after my fifth summer with SeaTrek (and my first summer as a ShIP Intern!!) As it’s mid-September and I find myself wearing pants and long sleeves, I can’t help but reminisce about the hot weather down in the BVI’s!

One of my favorite days, *cough cough my birthday* is when we play turtle hurdles! Turtle hurdles is an awesome game. Physically it’s kind of like capture the flag, however it teaches you about the hardships that Sea Turtles face! One team is the turtles and the other team represents the obstacles that the turtles face. The turtles start off on one side of the field and have to make their way to the other side and back again, five times. Each turtle has tags that they wear and as they run across the sandy field, the obstacles try to take them. First the turtles run through shore obstacles, like sand crabs, condominiums, artificial lighting etc. And then they move their way into the open ocean where there are threats such as other marine life and poachers. To aide the turtles on their journey there are two safe-zones that represent turtle grass! By the end, only a few survive 🙁 . This game is incredibly fun! However it really gets the message across about how hard turtles have it!

This is just one of the ways that SeaTrek has made it fun to learn about marine ecosystems, nature’s checks and balances and wildlife conservation. Whoooo! Come voyage with SeaTrek next summer and let’s play Turtle Hurdles!