Going around the island every day to check the spawning of green turtles on shore, making new islander friends, and occasionally having the freshest seafood for meal... This is the epitome of the life of Zhao Hongyun, a student from Wenzhou University, who has been on Ganquan Island in Xisha for about a month doing protection and scientific research on green turtles. 

He will stay on Xisha Ganquan island for a year. “As long as I can contribute to the protection of green turtles, it’s worth even if I can’t go home for a year,” said Zhao Hongyun. 

Circle the island every day to observe the spawning

More than 300 turtles have hatched

August being the peak time for sea turtles to lay eggs, there are sea turtles coming ashore to lay eggs nearly every day. Therefore, Zhao Hongyun, who has just been on the island, immediately devoted himself to scientific research as soon as he adapted to the life of Ganquan island. 

“At present, the main work is field investigation, and I’ll also do some experiments in the laboratory and record the data,” said Zhao Hongyun. As turtles come ashore at midnight to lay their eggs, so every morning at 7:30 a.m., he starts to circle the island to check out the spawning situation of turtles coming ashore the night before. Ganquan island is not big. It takes about 40 minutes to travel around this island. As there’s no means of transportation there, one has to walk. But Zhao enjoys walking around it.

Sea turtles leave obvious marks when crawling on the beach and they have a fixed way of digging their nests. Therefore, by observing whether there are footprints on the beach and viewing the nest shape, we can roughly tell whether sea turtles have gone ashore to lay eggs. 

Every time he spots a nest, Zhao numbers it and places a sign on it with information such as time for easy identification. After three or four nests have been found, he would check to see if there are any eggs. Generally, he will not touch the eggs in order not to interfere with hatching. “Turtles can lay a hundred eggs or so in one clutch! Turtle eggs are white, smaller than chicken eggs, about the size of ping-pong balls. “Every time I found a clutch of eggs, I felt as happy as mother turtle.” Zhao Hongyun said with a smile, every litter of turtles impresses him. According to his observation, more than 300 sea turtles have hatched so far. 

Living on the island quartered by the islanders

Some quids they have eaten are as big as washbasins

Zhao Hongyun is currently the only one on the island doing research on green turtle conservation. In order to keep in touch with him, his tutor in Wenzhou, Zhejiang will hold regular online group meetings, asking him to report on his current work and his next plan, and giving him advice on his wok. At the same time, Zhao will consult his tutor whenever he encounters scientific research problems. There are times, however, when Zhao is too busy on his own, and many of the island’s residents are willing to help him with his daily scientific work. 

In fact, aside from scientific work, islanders have helped him a lot in life. After arriving on the island, Zhao Hongyun depends on the islanders for food and accommodation, eating whatever the islanders eat, which include cabbage and pepper grown by the islanders themselves, and carrots and onions regularly brought from Hainan Island.

What arouses his appetite most is the seafood freshly caught, such as conch and squid. The biggest squid he had ever seen was the size of a washbasin, and the best seafood he had ever eaten was a grouper that had been cooked in less than 10 minutes after being caught. The meat was tender and sweet, unlike any other fish he had eaten inland. 

In the evening, people will gather together to chat, watch a few movies, walk and play on the beach... As a native Henan, Zhao Hongyun quickly adapted to life on the island with the help of islanders and fell in love with it. 

Someone says, “A trip to South China Sea renders trips to other seas unnecessary.” Zhao agrees. The scenery here is unique and the sea is spectacular. Albeit being alone, he has new turtles ashore every day, new experiments to be done, and new friends to make with different islanders. Life on such an island is busy yet not boring. 

Feeling honored to be doing research in the South China Sea

Making no plan to return home at present

Before the trip, Zhao Hongyun brought with him some books about turtles and ecology. Every day after work, he would take out his books and flip through them. 

As for the up-coming Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, Zhao says without thinking that he has no plan to go home at present as .there is so much work to do and someone needs to continue working. 

“The network here works fine. I can video call my family anytime, anywhere, and if I can’t go home, life is also pleasant here.” Zhao Hongyun puts it that he is honored to be doing scientific research in the South China Sea. “As long as I can contribute to the protection of green turtles, it’s worth even if I can’t go home for a year.”

However, when the day comes for him to return home, he will bring the local seafood with him to share the delicious taste with his family.

Source: http://www.wzu.edu.cn/info/1320/34889.htm