Internship Programs in Bali

Marine Biology Student Volunteer Work at Turtle Conservation Center, Bali

"It was the best experience of my life. Helping sea turtles was my biggest dream and I did it by helping the turtles of Indonesia at the conservation center." Laura, Marine Biology in Wollongong University, Australia

When dream finally turn into a reality

I am so happy to have been a volunteer at Turtle Conservation Center, Bali! It was the best experience of my life. Helping sea turtles was my biggest dream and I did it by helping the turtles of Indonesia at the conservation center. The work was not strict at all, we worked four hours a day and we chose the shift, morning or afternoon. The staff was also very nice and friendly. It was very nice learning information about sea turtles thanks to the staff of the center. I did a lot of missions such as feeding the turtles, curing them if needed, cleaning their tanks, welcoming them at the center when they are rescued from the black market, releasing them back to the ocean when the center was allowed to, releasing the baby turtles, collecting seagrass directly in the ocean to feed the green sea turtles and welcoming the tourists by giving them a tour with information about sea turtles.

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Volunteer tasks

Choosing my favorite part of this volunteering is very hard so I will tell several of them. I appreciated releasing the babies to the ocean, they are so cute! But releasing a big sea turtle after a religious ceremony was very moving because of all these people who were happy to see this turtle going to the ocean. Also, one day we received seven new turtles, rescued from the black market. They all arrived in two police trucks, attached thins. It was very hard to see how humans can treat animals. So, we put these turtles in some of our tanks, it was exhausting, I’ve never sweat that much before this day. But it was a very good sensation of satisfaction to know that thanks to the police and this center, we saved seven new sea turtles from human activities.

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Another thing I loved was talking with interested tourists at the center. Some tourists were not interested in what we talked about, they just wanted to see the turtles, without interest. But some of the tourists were very interested and interesting. I remember a little girl from California who was very shy. Her dad told me that she didn’t dare to ask me questions, so I gave her a complete tour just for her giving her heaps of information about sea turtles, she was amazed, and it made me happy. Her dad even took a picture of us. I also remember a Russian couple who told me that they admired the way I wanted to help sea turtles whereas they are animals that do not show their emotions. Very interesting tourists too.

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I will miss these sea turtles, I would like to help them my entire life. I will also miss the staff who was so sweet. I also enjoyed the nice environment of Bali, the fruits, the food in general.

Did you get inspired by Laura's story?