Introduction
Marine
turtle conservation is a major concern for the World Wildlife
Fund (WWF), and the organization is currently supporting turtle
conservation groups within the Guiana Shield Region to assist
them with their work. The Guyana Marine Turtle Conservation
Society is one of the organizations in the region and the only
one in Guyana to have received such assistance, which has given
them a welcome boost.
With
our experience in designing and producing documentaries in the
region and specifically in Guyana, the Guiana Shield Media Project
(GSMP) was contracted by WWF to produce video footage of marine
turtle conservation activities in Guyana, to be used for a major
video production of its work in the region. Using guidelines
set out in the treatment provided by our international office
and directors with special technical assistance from GMTCS,
the local team was well equipped to coordinate, manage and execute
each aspect of the assignment. Below, we describe this Associate
Production for you.
Wednesday
26th July 2000
Team
Wednesday
26th July 2000
After
fifty –two minutes of travel in the Skyvan (aircraft) from the
Ogle Airstrip just outside Georgetown, we arrived at Broomes
Airstrip in Mabaruma at around 11:00am. Ms Annette Arjoon, Shell
Beach Project Manager, Mr. Romeo De Freitas and the hills of
Mabaruma greeted us. Annette was on her way back to Georgetown
after a short but hectic three day visit to Shell Beach, our
intended destination. With a great wealth knowledge of Sea Turtle
conservation and the area Romeo would be our guide and technical
advisor for the next three days.
Mabaruma
is a small community of about approximately 3000 people located
in the North West District of Guyana; it is the administrative
capital of Region One. As we journeyed up and down around red
hills and through the community in a forest green mini-bus we
noticed the ethnic mixture of people. A reflection of three
of the six races found in Guyana: Amerindians, Africans and
East Indians. We departed for Shell Beach in a wooden boat powered
by a 150 horsepower engine used for beach patrols The blackwater
Aruka River, with its banks covered by rainforest and sparsely
populated communities, is the main transportation artery for
residents and visitors alike. . We made it to Almond Beach,
our first destination, in an hour and a half. Here supplies
and other goods were offloaded for the local residents. Kamwatta
Beach, our final destination was only forty-five minutes away
now. This would be our home for the next few days, and is also
the rangers’ base camp. In expectation of high tides during
the night the rangers and GSMP crewmembers pushed the boat onto
high ground, away from the sea, lest it be swept away. After
having a light snack everyone retired and sat around the table
to discuss the film treatment and prepare for the evening’s
work. According to the rangers the patrol of the beach would
start at about 8:30pm.
Sherwin,
Chand and Marcia swam in the ocean while I (Sharla) had my bath
from an artificial pond. Dinner was shortly served at about
6:15pm. While we all sat for dinner the mosquitoes came to join
us… they fed on our bodies. After dinner, someone lit a fire
to smoke the place out. It did help, but the smoke burnt our
eyes.
The
rangers started their patrol at around 8:30 pm and the crew
got into action when they reported there first sitting of a
Leatherback turtle about 400 meters from the camp. On our way
to film the Leatherback the crew and rangers stumbled on a Hawksbill,
one of a few spotted on this trip. Romeo said that she came
up the night before, this he called "false crawl." The crew
went to work immediately, filming every stage of the nesting
process. But we where not the only ones at work: the breeze
from the Atlantic soon died out, making it more conducive for
the mosquitoes to work on us, which made us very uncomfortable
as they covered our equipment and every exposed part of our
bodies. The Hawksbill we saw that night was the only one we
saw during our short stay, confirming what the rangers said,
that they are rarely found on the shell beach.
Thursday
27th July 2000
At
1:15 a.m. we woke up; the rangers had already left for their
early morning patrol. We were told that there were about three
Leatherbacks nesting. As we went to film, another Leatherback
was coming to shore, so we filmed it.
Chand
was worried about his camera battery running down, and preferred
to keep it for the next day. We returned to camp at 4 am that
morning. When we entered our camping tents the mosquitoes went
in with us. We spent the next half hour killing them, before
finally managing to sleep.
Shortly
after breakfast we started shooting. We shot the newly hatched
turtles after they were taken out from hatchery and put into
a container, allowing them to head for shore.
Until
lunchtime, we filmed interviews with all the rangers, at different
points along te seashore. We ate lunch at about 1:30pm rested
a little.
At
about 2:30 pm we packed up and left Kamwatta beach. We proceeded
to Almond Beach where the local community is based. Upon our
arrival at Almond Beach, we met the local residents and filmed
a number of interviews with them.
We
were all tired, and had had a good day’s filming, so we ate
dinner and went to bed at around 9pm.
Friday
28th July 2000
The
rangers estimated that the tide would start falling at 6.00am,
so we got up at 5.00 am to get ready for our journey back to
Georgetown. To our surprise and to a lesser extent the rangers’,
the tide had already fallen, leaving us to push the boat a mile
and a half off the shore, until we reached sufficiently deep
water. This was a daring challenge to Sherwin, Chand and the
rangers, who all had to strip off down to their shorts to work
in the deep mud.
We
traveled back along the same route to the airstrip and then
to Georgetown. It was sad to leave the daytime splendor of Shell
Beach and the nesting turtles, but we all agreed that the mosquitoes
made the nights a nightmare.
