Turtles are cool! :o)
Posted on 05/28/2006 9:35:23 AM PDT by devane617
What started as a Spring Break vacation on South Padre Island turned into a dream job for Rachel Mayer.
Mayer, 23, originally from Medina, Ohio, is one of the interns working at Sea Turtle Inc. this summer.
“During Spring Break I came to the center and got some information,” Meyer said. “Turtles are my hobby. I own six.”
Although Mayer recently graduated from the University of Toledo with a degree in health information management, she plans to go back to school to get her master’s in marine biology.
“I knew I wanted to go into health care, but I hadn’t realized I wanted to do animal health care,” she said.
Meyer said as soon as she found out she had gotten the internship with the rehab center, she packed her four red-eared slider turtles and two red-footed tortoises and started the trip down to the Island.
“I drove for three days,” Meyer said. “When I stopped to walk my tortoises at rest areas, people thought I was selling turtles because I had so many.”
Since working at the center, Mayer said she’s learned more about turtles’ backgrounds, diets, medicines and diseases.
On June 13, Mayer and other interns will be traveling to Rancho Nuevo in Tamaulipas, Mexico to help locals learn how to make jewelry out of dried coconuts for income instead of killing sea turtles, she said.
“I’m helping people learn about the problems with sea turtles like endangerment and raising awareness,” Mayer said.
In the future, Mayer would like to travel to Costa Rica and the Virgin Islands to learn more about other turtle species.
“Working with turtles is a dream job for me,” she said.
It's good to see someone find their life's calling -- even if it is Turtles. Happy Sunday, and Memorial Day!
Turtles are cool! :o)
My kid has two red eared sliders, we get a big kick out of taking care of them. She would love to work at a place like that.
Big, big market for dried coconut jewelry. Probably will score her a Nobel Prize.
Won't be long before some genius comes along and says "Kill em all".
It's not for me, the whole turtle thing, but I'm glad for her!
IF she can get back across the border...
I wonder if she actually thinks these people didn't go back to killing the turtles as soon as she left?
I can't even name one of their songs. They look like the Monkeys.
I dunno. Which would the locals rather do? Cook a turtle for soup, or try to sell cheesy coconut jewelry to the rare gringo visitor to that part of Mexico?
I'm putting my money on the soup.
I'm sure the locals love it when wide-eyed college girls from the richest country in the world show up with lessons on mantaining a "coconut jewelry" economy.
Happy Together.
But they're just teenage mutant ninjas now.
We have an African Spurred Tortoise. It's gonna outlive me and the wife. I guess we'll have to will it to one of our kids.
Yep, I agree, they would rather have the soup. I am sure coconut jewlery would be a big hit somewhere, maybe on Mars?
That's just nuts!
(making turtle sounds)
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