The Islander - Thursday 4th June 1998

ASCENSION ISLAND CHARITY SPORTS COMPETITION

Georgetown dominated the Swimming Competition on Saturday, but Two Boats hit back heavily on the track at Long Beach on Sunday.

Pictured right is Cable & Wireless's Sharon Henry from Two Boats who won the Women's Long Jump by jumping a distance of 3m 55.

The competition culminates on Friday 5th June following the second round of the golf competition at One Boat, after which the the presentation for prizes will take place at around 8pm.

From the Administrator - Governor's Lodge

I am sorry to say that we have had to take the painful decision to demolish Governor's lodge, the barn and the lean-to sheds on Cross Hill. Since the 1820s the site has accommodated Commodore's Cottage, Bate's Cottage, the Lodge, the residence of the C&W General Manager and the Island Club.

We should have preferred to save the building but the cost of this is prohibitively expensive and would anyway have entailed the demolition of the present wooden structures and complete rebuilds.

Our professional advice is that all the superstructures of the buildings are dangerously unsafe being riddled with wood-worm and suffering the effects of advanced old age. The fear is that a child could fall through the roof or the floor and be seriously injured.

The building foundations will remain and guard rails will be erected. It is hoped that the site will become an amenity area with some trees, benches, picnic tables etc

R C Huxley
Administrator & President Ascension Heritage Society
27 May 1998

Track record for Ascension Island turtles

Over the last year a collaborative research effort involving scientists from the University of Pisa and the University of Wales Swansea, has been trying to unravel some of the mysteries of the lives of Ascension Island green turtles. Last year we used satellite transmitters to track five turtles as they migrated from Ascension Island to Brazil. This is the first time that the migration routes between Ascension and South America have been chartered. The routes were remarkably consistent, especially during the first stages of the migration, with the turtles setting out from Ascension by following the prevailing WSW current. On our current trip to Ascension we are attaching some more satellite transmitters and we will examine whether or not the turtles use the Earth's magnetic field to guide them during their migration.

Six weeks ago we visited Ascension Island in order to examine the turtles' diving behavior while they are at Ascension. We attached miniature computers to eight females after they had nested on Long Beach. Two weeks later we scoured the beaches around Georgetown and managed to recover six of the computers as the turtles returned to nest again. The information from the computers has shown that the turtles spend a lot of the time sleeping on the sea bottom at about 20 m, coming to the surface only every 30 mins or so to take a few breaths before they go back down for another snooze. Given the effort that the turtles expend while they are nesting it is perhaps no surprise that they take it easy between nests !

Graeme Hays,
University of Wales,
Swansea