 In 2010, at the end of my first year as a Bachelor student, I participated in the marine turtle research and monitoring project of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. In teams of two we checked nests of the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) and the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). In contrast to the vast majority of hatchlings, which start digging their way up at night, some hatchlings try to leave the nest during the day and die in the burning hot sand. Our main task was to check the lower sand layers for new hatchlings and keep them cool until the evening, when we released them into the sea. Furthermore, we collected data for a long term survey, such as hatch dates and number of (fertilised) eggs per nest. It was an amazing experience not only because of the chance to actually interact with newly hatched turles, or the rare occasion to find an leucistic and a double-headed turtle, but also because it was the start of a great friendship.
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