About Ocean Spirits, Grenada

Ocean Spirits is an organization dedicated to saving Grenada’s sea turtles, and has been in place since 1999. You can read about their work here: http://www.oceanspirits.org/

Kester (R) with a volunteer

It is run by two outstanding Grenadians, Kester and Kimron, who have been working with the turtles here for over 6 years. They are knowledgeable, experts at what they do, and unimaginably patient with us volunteers who almost invariably forget something small (or large – such as locking up equipment). Their dedication comes through in all aspects of their work. There is little apart from caring deeply about ensuring the sea turtles’ survival for the next generation of Grenadians as they’ve said, that could make anyone spend 3 nights a week largely awake on the beach explaining what to do to streams of eager volunteers for 6 months a year. They handle both us and the turtles with nothing but gentleness. There are two foreign supervisors who come through an annual application process, and are equally committed.

Kimron

In addition to monitoring the nesting beach, collecting data and publishing research (including one in Nature which documented the Leatherback’s incredible journeys across the Atlantic using satellite tags), Ocean Spirits are involved in the community through primary school education and radio programs. They have set up a “Turtle Hotline” which people can call to report anything turtle-related such as someone selling a turtle in the market, reporting poaching activity etc.  Local veterinary students volunteer from St. George’s University in the nest monitoring to get some hands on experience with dealing with turtles. Intriguingly, I’m told most of the students in the university are foreigners (mainly from the US) because it is too expensive for Grenadians. This unfortunate fact seems to me a short-sighted disservice to Grenada’s own future professional base.

I arrived with lingering doubts about whether these types of volunteer placements were actually doing some good or were just “green-washed” vacations for outdoorsy people. I also wondered whether I was displacing local Grenadians. I raised this with one of the Grenadian supervisors who assured me that without the volunteers that come to work on this project, it would not be sustainable. They do not have the funds to pay people to work with the turtles, and understandably, few are willing to work these crazy hours for free when they have to provide for their families. Having been here for 2 weeks now, I see the value of the work we are doing. Poaching on Levera the main nesting beach is virtually non-existent because Ocean Spirits volunteers are there every night, we’ve had 2 calls on the turtle hotline, and everyone in the area knows about Ocean Spirits’ work. Most importantly, the statistics speak for themselves, as the numbers of turtles who have nested here every year has been steadily increasing. Last year they had over 600 nests. So in addition to getting to enjoy this lovely place, I can allow myself to feel like I’m also doing some good. Perhaps I can add “saving species” to my resume, though it’s not likely to get me very far in public health!

I found Ocean Spirits through Working Abroad – one of the many “volunteer vacation” organizations (http://www.workingabroad.com/).