A REDDITCH student is appealing to the community to come out of their shells and help him achieve his dream of one day declaring sea turtles as no longer endangered.
Callum Muscroft, a former pupil at Tudor Grange Academy, is embarking on an expedition to Mexico to complete his dissertation as part of his Zoology studies at Bangor University.
The 20-year-old is on the cusp of achieving his childhood dream and once in Mexico will travel to Akumal where he will spend six weeks with Operation Wallacea.
The charity is a network of academics from European and North American universities who carry out biodiversity and conservation management research expeditions.
Callum, who studied at Heart of Worcestershire College prior to moving to Wales, will join forces with Operation Wallacea to not only complete his dissertation on the behaviour of turtles and how the tourism is affecting their nesting preferences but to help conduct research.
He added: “I hope to help determine the cause for the declining population and for my research to, one day, help the foundation remove the ‘endangered’ tag from the sea turtles I will be working with.”
During his time in Akumal, which literally means ‘home of the turtles’ in Mayan, Callum will work with both Loggerhead and Green sea turtles and will measure the temperatures of successful nesting sites.
Callum, who is in the second year of his studies, hopes this will help to determine if temperature affects the gender ratios of the eggs.
He has already raised enough cash to fund his flights, transportation, accomodation and deposits to secure his place on the trip of a lifetime but needs a final £1,000 before he can work towards his childhood dream.
Visit http://tinyurl.com/z3ef353 to support Callum and the sea turtles or http://opwall.com/ to learn more about Operation Wallacea.
