The stylesheet have been removed. We have not had any rain for the last two days so it is not as humid as it normally gets around here. The equipment which was to arrive Saturday, then Sunday and then Monday, finally arrived on Tuesday morning. The whole day was spent getting things in order - burying the temperature data loggers in the beach, putting up the thermometer and the new rain gauge. Temperature plays an important role for sea turtles in that it determines the sex of the hatchlings.
Low temperatures result in males and high temperatures in females.
Therefore we monitor both sand and air temperature as well as rainfall which affects the sand temperature. Shortly after nine o'clock at night Carlos and Rachel came back to the station. They excitedly told us that they been going for a walk on the beach and almost bumped into a leatherback coming ashore to nest. We quickly got all the necessary equipment together and took off down the beach. Alex and Cristina measured the distance from the nest to the vegetation and the high tide line and also marked the nest with two pieces of flagging tape in the vegetation.