Trip to the Pawikan!

   

PCC

Dear Readers,

 It may be late to talk about something which happened weeks ago however the feelings are still imprinted on us. The joy we felt seeing newly hatched sea turtles and the depression which came over when we had to let go off them. This happened last February 3, we went in a trip to Pawikan Conservation Center (PCC) which is in Bataan. For the older trips that we've been to, we have been traveling along with lower grade levels but this time it was only meant for us.

Hawksbill sea turtle

 We had this trip because this was made to widen our knowledge towards sea turtles found in our country. We joined because we wanted to, and we knew this was an opportunity which may not come again and so we took it. We expected the trip to be really tiring but the same time fun.Before the actual field trip we were really really excited to go on this trip, I mean who wouldn't be when it's a day dedicated to only the 6th graders!

 Since our site was PCC, we expected to learn a lot more about sea turtles. About how they grow up, what they eat or where they decide to go to once they've hatched. PCC is an organization conserving sea turtles. They were made because the number of our sea turtles have greatly diminished because of  humans eating turtle eggs. They themselves said that it would be nearly impossible to regain the sea turtle's original number, however they are working earnestly in trying to get back at least as  close enough to the original number. We learned a lot from the PCC, that baby turtles grow up not having their mothers beside them so it's a survival game out there for them. Out of 7 we have 5 kinds of sea turtles in the Philippines (hawksbill, olive ridley, leatherback, loggerhead, and green sea turtle), each having their own eating habits.After sea turtles hatches they swim towards other countries but when they've reached maturity they come back to their birthplace to lay eggs.

Olive Ridley

 The Olive Ridley is commonly known as the Pacific Ridley. Its scientific name is Lepidochelys olivacea.

                                                           Taxonomic classifications:
                                                             

                                                               Kingdom: Animalia

                                                               Phylum: Chordata

                                                               Class: Reptalia
                                                               Order: Testudines
                                                               Family: Cheloniidae
                                                               Genus: Lepidochelys

Baby Olive Ridley

 What's interesting with Olive Ridley turtles is that unlike other sea turtles they prefer black sand, also they are the smallest kind of sea turtles. We chose Olive Ridley out of the other sea turtles because we found them to be really adorable and that is because seeing newly hatched ones, they looked so helpless that we couldn't take our eyes off of them.

Olive Ridley turtles are predominantly carnivorous especially during their early stages of life. They are favourable towards Mangroves, the breeding grounds of fishes,prawns and crabs which they feed on after having to migrate over large distances in the sea. During our stay in the PCC we released a couple of Olive Ridleys which was quite depressing knowing that we couldn't keep them but it was for their own good.

Thank you for reading our 2nd entry and I hope to your reading our suceeding posts.

Sincerly yours
J.A.E.Y.L.