VCU news

By Joan Tupponce

Daniella Asnicar just marked two entries off her bucket list: Visit Greece? Check. Work with sea turtles? Check.

Asnicar, a rising senior at Virginia Commonwealth University, spent five weeks in late spring and early summer completing an internship with Archelon: the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece at its rescue center in Glyfada, where sick and injured turtles are rehabilitated.

“We worked with 26 turtles, mostly loggerheads,” said Asnicar, who is majoring in environmental studies in VCU Life Sciences. “While I was there, I got to see three of the turtles go back in the ocean. That was really special to see.”

She learned about the opportunity from her VCU advisor and received support from VCU’s Internship Funding Program, which offers awards that help students defray the expenses associated with summer internships.

A native of Gloucester on Virginia’s Middle Peninsula, Asnicar attended the Chesapeake Bay Governor’s School and came to VCU for its acclaimed environmental science program. She said she has known since middle school that she wanted to work in the field.

“I like protecting the environment, and I felt like I could make a career out of it. Also, my mom works in the field,” she said.

In Greece, Asnicar lived and worked with the same team — students from around the world, ranging in age from 18 to 30.

“The life-changing part of the experience for me was living with people I would never have interacted with without this internship,” she said.

Some nights, she would stay at the rescue center to check on the turtles. And every day, the team, supervised by rehabilitation staff members, helped clean the turtles and their tanks, and supported feeding the turtles using techniques based on their condition.

“Only some people can touch and work with them,” Asnicar said. “A lot of the turtles were injured by fishing lines or boating. We were trying to be a force in returning them back healthy and happy.”

She and her teammates observed how rescue center staff would dress and clean a turtle’s wounds, and the days she helped prepare the turtles for release back into the ocean were particularly special.

“We would do one last check to make sure they were OK and to identify them,” Asnicar said. “We put metal tags on their front flippers so they could be identified. We also did a chip to identify them.”

The team drove about 40 minutes to a less populated beach to release the turtles.

“We put the adult female turtles in the sand to orient them. We would put the adult male turtles right into the water. The waves would come, and they would swim right off into deeper waters,” Asnicar said. “We got to see our hard work pay off. We got to see them move and eat freely and go back to where they belong.”

In addition to the internship’s lessons about rehabilitating turtles, “I also learned about their biology in general, how they nest and the issues they face,” she said, noting that she would like to pursue work in conservation after her VCU graduation.

Asnicar is proud of her work in Greece – and noted that there is one turtle she will always think about.

“I hope it’s OK,” she said. “Seeing them improve was so heartwarming. I liked seeing that my work contributed to their health.”