Matt Picard, 2008
Internship with EAI - Ecological Associates Inc, a consulting / research organization for most of the counties in Florida.
Matt's description: "I am hired as a Marine Turtle Technician. Our study basically consists of a 9 mile daily beach survey of Loggerhead, Green and Leatherback sea turtles. We use GPS to record locations of nests and any other non nesting crawls. We randomly mark a series of nests depending on human and turtle densities (county gives us these numbers) in various zoned areas. These nests are observed and monitored for predation, over-washing and poaching, as well as general beach hight, obstructions, distance to dune, and scarp formations that inhibit laying. After the nest has hatched or reached its full gestation (we give them ~90 days) the nests are dug, live hatchlings are released and the size of the egg chamber is recored. Hatchling success is determined by looking at the number of damaged, infertile eggs, those that hatched on their own, those piped (dead and alive), and those that hatched but that were unable to climb out of the egg chambers and are either dead or alive. Then all data are entered into a computer database and thats just not nearly as exciting as everything else. So in a slightly large detailed nutshell thats pretty much what I do and love it."
Websites for more info:
http://www.marinelife.org/nesting_research.htm
http://www.ecological-associates.com/ , http://www.ecological-associates.com/Serv-Prov-window_sea-turtle.html