Working To End The Tortoiseshell Trade

Our Too Rare To Wear program has been busy this year. We launched our ground-breaking SEE Shell App in April and since then have been collaborating with partners to improve the app, train law enforcement officials on its use, and support long-term efforts to reduce the trade in key spots around the world.

Key highlights from this work:

• Launch of the SEE Shell app: SEE Shell is the first to use machine learning to identify hawksbill shell products with photos. More than 1,100 people in 23 countries around the world have downloaded the app to date, which includes 650 downloads from the Apple App Store and 520 downloads on the Google App Store as of August 2022. The app has been tested to reach about 90% accurate on tortoiseshell products.

• Colombia: Our partner Fundacion Tortugas del Mar has completed workshops with hundreds of participants in coastal towns to educate about this trade and train people how to use the app. They also conducted surveys of more than 500 shops in the region, finding more than 30 selling more than 1,500 pieces of tortoiseshell. They also added 30 new shops to their Turtle-Free Souvenir Shops program.

• Panama: Too Rare To Wear funded a two week-long series of workshops and visits on the hawksbill trade in Panama with our partners at the Leatherback Project, Fundacion Tortugas del Mar, and representatives of the Panamanian Ministry of the Environment and Navy.

  This team also conducted a training survey on the tortoiseshell trade with more than 2,500 representatives of the Panamanian Army & Navy, who are key to enforcing the laws on wildlife trafficking in the country. In addition, they held 4 workshops for local kids in 4 coastal communities, reaching more than 300 students. Finally, while traveling the country, the team investigated the use of tortoiseshell for the cockfighting industry, which little information has been available due to its secretive nature.

• Indonesia: Our partners Turtle Foundation / Yayasan Penyu Indonesia are conducting a large outreach campaign that will include advertising on tv, radio, and social media, creation of outreach materials including signage, shirts, and costumes to use for student education. Our funds will help to train local artisans in alternative materials to allow them to stop selling tortoiseshell, as well as business training. In addition, they will be holding three workshops for law enforcement to promote use of our app.

• Collaboration with WWF: Our collaboration with WWF Australia has been extremely fruitful, starting with their office sharing tortoiseshell images to train the machine learning model. Their staff provided input and helped to test the app in the early stages. ·      SEE Shell will be showcased in a toolkit for the TRIPOD Project which is a collaborative project of Freeland Foundation, WWF, and IFAW. They are highlighting SEE Shell as part of WWF’s ShellBank – Marine Turtle Traceability and Forensics Training workshops led by the Global Marine Turtle Conservation Lead in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. A total of 30 participants from 10 law enforcement agencies from Sabah Malaysia have participated so far.

Learn more about our Too Rare To Wear program here.

Sea Turtles & Plastic Program Update

It has been a busy few months for our Sea Turtles & Plastic program! With grants to organizations in Curacao, Colombia, Kenya, and Mexico, we have helped our partners fund efforts to cleanup up sea turtle nesting beaches, educate and engage local communities, and convert plastic beach trash into marketable goods. Our partners have engaged in hard on the ground work, launching new programs and working on novel solutions to ocean plastic issues.

Green Phenix

On the island of Curacao, Green Phenix organizes regular beach cleanups, educational tours and converts collected ocean plastic into new products. Founded in 2019, Green Phenix grew from a project in a backyard to an organization with 8 employees and 24 participants in a “learn and work program” in a beautiful facility that has reached over 5,000 kids with educational presentations. Their project offers people that have been unemployed for a long time the opportunity to join the “learn and work program” for 1 year.

Since October 2021, they have collected a staggering 7,660 kg (16,800 lbs) of trash with 269 kg (~600 lbs) marked for recycling through regular beach cleanups with the support of funds from SEE Turtles. In their plastic bakery, collected beach plastic is transformed into new products. Current efforts are focusing on using newly acquired molds to convert beach plastic into standardized high-quality souvenirs. Four team members have been trained to operate the 3D printers so far. They also produce products that are handcrafted and extruded.

Photo: Green Phenix

Research Center for Environmental Management and Development (CIMAD)

CIMAD works to address the pollution of sea turtle nesting beaches in the community of Pangui in the Chocó Pacific region of Colombia by transforming plastic into artisanal and utilitarian handicrafts made by local women. Efforts began in December of 2021 by sending materials and tools funded by SEE Turtles to a group of women known as Mujeres Conservando Vida. They were able to turn collected beach trash into Santa Claus dolls and Christmas trees that the women were able to take home, with the intent to teach locals that recycled materials can be transformed into decorative objects, handicrafts, and other marketable products. In January of 2022, the first workshop on plastics and turtles was held with the group of women, where they were informed about the importance of keeping the beaches free of this material for the conservation of sea turtles in their community.

Currently, the Mujeres Conservando Vida group is made up of 14 people, 8 of whom are active in the production of recycled plastic products. So far, they have collected 6.5 kg of plastic (14 lbs) from local sea turtle nesting beaches. This material has been washed, dried, cut into strips, and turned into skeins which have been woven into hats and bags. They have also created flowers and floral arrangements. COVID has slowed tourism in the region but they hope to be able to sell their products at the Nuquí airport, as well as hostels and hotels in the area soon. They are also marketing their goods on Instagram where you can find them as @mujeresconservandovida. They plan to donate 15% of the profits obtained from products sold to tourists to purchase equipment needed by local groups that monitor the Pangui sea turtle nesting beaches. 

Photo: CIMAD

Community-Based Environmental Conservation (COBEC)

Tying together sea turtle monitoring, education and plastic waste collection, COBEC has focused their efforts on the beaches and communities along the Marereni Seascape of Kenya. With little known about the local sea turtle population, COBEC began by training 10 community members with a passion for sea turtle conservation. Residents were taught how to effectively monitor the sea turtle nesting beaches and to collect data needed to inform management for the proper conservation. The team has identified 27 nests this season with 14 nests successful hatchings for a total of 1,478 hatchlings. Three species have been identified nesting on their beach: green sea turtles, hawksbills and olive ridleys.

Every month they hold a beach cleanup with local communities in their attempts to keep the nesting beaches free of trash and aide in habitat restoration. They have collected 1.2 tons of plastic waste and procured a plastic bottle shredder to shred and convert this plastic into small goods like key holders. They have also filled 1,000 plastic bottles with sand to make building materials.

Photo: COBEC

Campamento Tortuguero Mayto

Campamento Tortuguero Mayto works to address plastic pollution in their local communities on Mexico’s Pacific coast by providing local collection containers. Previously, people would dispose of plastic by burning it along with their garden waste, adding toxins to both the environment and air. The collection containers have provided local communities with an alternative disposal solution. With 29 containers currently deployed, they have collected 411 kg of plastic (~900 lbs) in the last 6 months, benefiting 250 people.

The plastic collected in these containers is brought to transported to the collection and management center, located at the Centro de Educación Ambiental de Mayto (CEAM). Plastic is manually separated according to plastic recycling number and color. Using the thermo-molding technique, the plastic is shredded into small pieces and directly recycled to create kids chairs, roof tiles, bowls, and other products. Recent efforts to create recycled goods have been halted due to electrical issues but they are hoping to resume soon. In the meantime, they are continuing their plastic collection and compaction, beach and town clean ups, and environmental education workshops with volunteers and students. They have also been working together with active members of the plastic transformation community in different states in Mexico. One example of this is their partnership with SuuT KuXtal, with whom they have designed and created a plastic inclusion mold to create a turtle that can be sold as a souvenir to tourists and students. Check them out on Instagram here @campamentomayto.

Photo: Eco Mayto

July Billion Baby Turtles Update

We’re continuing with our record-breaking year for saving hatchlings through our Billion Baby Turtles program! July was another very busy month with 11 new grants to 10 organizations working in 8 countries. We provided a total of $59,000 in grants that will protect an estimated 580,000 hatchlings at these beaches. Many of these grants were due to the tremendous support from our recent collaboration with SodaStream. That brings out total for the year to more than 2 million hatchlings saved.

Sea Turtle Conservancy, Bastimentos Island, Panama 

After more than 20 years of sea turtle research in Bocas del Toro Province, Anne and Peter Meylan formed a partnership with STC in 2003 to monitor increasing nesting by hawksbills along the Bocas coast. The area of work by the Meylans has been three important nesting beaches: Small Zapatilla Cay, Big Zapatilla Cay, and Playa Larga, are part of the Bastimentos Island National Marine Park. Billion Baby Turtles funds primarily support monitors on Playa Larga but also supported monitoring efforts on the Zapatilla Cays and weekly surveys on 11 km of beach adjacent to Playa Larga. Billion Baby Turtles supported this project with US $5,000 this season, helping to save an estimated 20,000 hatchlings this season.

Photo: Peter Meylan

Turtle Foundation, Sipora, Berau, and Selaut Besar, Indonesia

On the island of Sipora in West Sumatra, part of the Mentawai Islands, in autumn 2017, a completely unknown nesting 8 km beach of the endangered leatherback turtle was discovered: Buggeisiata. During decades the local community used to hunt nesting females and take the eggs for their consumption. With these practices the number of nesting females has decimated, but since Turtle Foundation is protecting this beach, the local community has respected the life of nesting females. By the end of March 2022 they protected 29 leatherback nests, 7 green turtles and 4 olive ridleys. With US $3,000, SEE Turtles supported this project which will save an estimated 500 hatchlings.

The Derawan Archipielago in the district of Berau, East Borneo, is located in the famous Coral Triangle, making it part of one of the most biodiverse marine areas. It also is one of the most important nesting sites for green turtles. In 2019 Turtle Foundation started their conservation efforts on Belambangan island and by the end of 2020 they extended their activities to the neighboring island of Sambit. All this work had led to a virtual complete decline of illegal collection for the first time in those islands, where turtle nests are now able to develop undisturbed. With US$ 10,000 Billion Baby Turtles supported this project, helping to save an estimated more than 52,000 hatchlings of three species. 

Selaut Besar is an important nesting site for green turtles in Sumatra. With a significant peak in September, they had more than 600 nests in the first year. Furthermore, leatherbacks turtles also nest on the island (22 nests). Lastly, the island is also sporadically visited by hawksbill turtles, so a total of three species of sea turtles nest on this unique island. Billion Baby Turtles is supporting this new project with US$ 10,000 for this upcoming season, helping save more than 13,000 hatchlings. 

Photo: Turtle Foundation

Ayotlcalli, Guerrero, Mexico

Campamento Tortuguero Ayotlcalli was founded in September of 2011 with the purpose of protecting three species of sea turtles that nest along 15 kilometers of beaches that include Playa Blanca, Playa Larga, and Barra de Potosi near Zihuatanejo. This nonprofit organization works with the assistance of several local and international volunteers who perform various activities such as night patrols searching for nests, relocating the eggs into the hatchery, and releasing into their vast new home. Billion Baby Turtles supported Ayotlcalli with US $3,000, helping to protect about 8,500 hatchling of the 3 different species that nest on these beaches (olive ridleys, leatherbacks, and black turtles).

Reef Guardians, Lankayan Island, Malaysia 

Since 2004, this project has protected hawksbill and green turtles nesting on Lankayan Island, in Malaysia. Since then, the annual nesting increased gradually from 138 nests in 2004 to 833 in 2021. In the last season, they protected 726 nests of greens and 107 nests of hawksbill turtles. In 2021, nesting recorded the 2nd highest total for the last 21 years. A total of 74,506 eggs were incubated for both species with a total of 59,863 hatchlings helped to the sea. With US $3,000, Billion Baby Turtles supported this upcoming season, helping save about 3,100 hatchlings. 

SOS Nicaragua  

Since 2019, Sos Nicaragua has been independently implementing conservation efforts on the island of Los Brasiles, starting a sea turtle protection program that extends to all recorded nesting species. The average number of nests protected annually usually exceeds 100, mostly nests of olive ridley turtles. Billion Baby Turtles support this project with US $2,000 this year which will help save about 1,400 hatchlings. 

Fundação Tartaruga, Boa Vista, Cabo Verde               

The Turtle Foundation has been active on Boa Vista since 2008, initially as a project and in 2021 Fundação Tartaruga, was created as a non-governmental organization registered under Cabo Verdean law. Through their protection programs, the total number of turtles killed has been drastically reduced year after year. Monitoring of the nesting beaches is conducted by local rangers and volunteers, but also with innovative methods such as the use of drones. Last season they protected a total of 20,660 nests and helped save more than 1 million baby turtles. Billion Baby Turtles is supporting this program with US $10,000 for this season, which will help save about 28,500 hatchlings.

Everlasting Nature,  Kimar Island, Indonesia    

This organization helps protect hawksbill turtle to help the recovery of this population, which has been devastated by the tortoiseshell trade. This island used to have a big problem with illegal egg collecting, this is the main reason for the establishment of this project. Everlasting Nature hires local people as “egg guardians,” walking the beach every morning and collecting nesting data. They conduct this this project with Indonesia Sea Turtle Research Foundation (Yayasan Penyu Laut Indonesia/ YPLI) as partner. Our Billion Baby Turtle program supported them with US$ 5,000 for this season, protecting an estimated 14,000 hatchlings.

Photo: Everlasting Nature

Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund, Costa Rica 

Playa Nancite is the second most important nesting site for olive ridley sea turtles in Costa Rica. The arribadas of these turtles generally result in between 20,000 and 116,000 nests each year. Green turtles also nest at Nancite, but in much smaller numbers. Turtle biologist Luis Fonseca has been studying the sea turtles of this area for more than a decade. He has expanded his research to cover the prey/predator phenomenon between nesting sea turtles and jaguar population, the first beach where such interactions have been extensively documented. With US$ 3,000 SEE Turtles supported this important beach that will help protect approximately 430,000 hatchlings.

Conservation des Espèces Marines, Grand-Béréby, Ivory Coast     

Conservation des Espèces Marines (CEM) has been active for more than a decade in sea turtle protection activities, focusing on approximately 30 km of beaches west of Grand-Béréby. CEM is a local nonprofit association of Ivory Coast and it is composed almost entirely by members of local communities. Three sea turtle species nest on the beach West of Grand Béréby: leatherbacks, with up to 200 nests every season, olive ridleys, with up to 650 nests every season, and green turtles, with up to 50 nests every season. Billion Baby Turtles is supporting this organization for the first time this year with US $5,000 to help protect an estimated 10,000 hatchlings.

May & June Billion Baby Turtles New Grants

Our Billion Baby Turtles program supports important turtle nesting beaches around the world. To date, we have provided $185,000 for 28 nesting beaches, helping to save an estimated 2.5 million hatchlings in 2023, with more grants planned for the rest of the year. See all of our partners here.

ProNatura Yucatan, Mexico

The project centers on the protection and recovery of sea turtle populations at three of the major nesting beaches for hawksbills and green turtles in the Yucatan Peninsula, the Caribbean, and the Northwest Atlantic, the team surveys a total of 79 km (49 miles) of beach. ProNatura Yucatan protects annually an average of 1,148 nests of hawksbills and 1,334 of green turtles; this is more than 200,000 baby turtles (for both especies) protected and helped to get to the big blue. With a grant of US $15,800, Billion Baby Turtles supports ProNatura this season to continue this great work. 

Hawksbill hatchlings from Mexico. Photo: Maria Andrade

Vida Marina, Puerto Rico

The Sea Turtle Project of Western Puerto Rico is one of the projects operated by Vida Marina: Center for Ecological Restoration and Conservation of the University of Puerto Rico at Aguadilla. The program staff monitors beaches for nesting activity, performs night-time watches, to tag and measure female leatherback turtles, using metal and pit tags, and performs nest inventories. This project also  assesses, investigates, reports and helps reduce sea turtle conservation threats such as: presence of feral dogs and cats, egg poaching, nest trampling by horseback riding tours and light pollution on nesting beaches.. Billion Baby Turtles contributed this season with a grant of US$ 5,000. 

Mar Alliance, Guna Yala, Panama

The autonomous Guna Yala Comarca on the Caribbean coast of Panama hosts incredible biodiversity and marine ecosystems. MarAlliance, which includes indigenous Guna biologists, students, educators, and fishermen, has been working in the Comarca to better understand the populations of marine megafauna in these habitats through in-water monitoring, as well as by conducting education, outreach, and capacity-building activities with schools, tour guides, fishers, and community leaders to improve management and conservation of marine resources.  This year Billion Baby Turtles supported MarAlliance with US$ 3,000 to establish and train the local community as managers of the project. 

Sri Lanka Turtle Conservation Project, Rekawa, Sri Lanka

Rekawa is a small fishing village located on the Southern coast of Sri Lanka. Five species of sea turtles come ashore to nest on the beaches of Sri Lanka and all these five species nest in Rekawa. It is probably the most important green turtle nesting rookery in Sri Lanka. Until 1996, none of the turtle eggs survived but were consumed or sold by the locals. The main objectives of this project are: 1) In situ protection of all sea turtle nests and hatchlings at this sanctuary; 2) provide alternative livelihood for Rekawa community members who used to depend on turtle egg collection; and, 3) provide an opportunity for general public, tourists and researchers to participate and learn more about this turtle population. On average this area has 800 nests of green turtles, 40 of olive ridleys, and sporadic nests of leatherback, loggerhead and hawksbills. With these efforts more than 80,000 hatchlings are helped every year to get to the ocean. Billion Baby Turtles program supported this project with a grant of US $10,000.

Comunidad Protectora de Tortugas de Osa, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

This Organization protects especially olive ridleys and green turtles and sporadically hawksbills and leatherbacks at 3 beaches (Playa Carate, Pejeperro and Río Oro). Since 2019 Tortugas de Osa monitoring and research projects offer the opportunity to involve different local actors, volunteers and conservation organizations, to contribute to the protection and monitoring of marine turtles. This is a community-led conservation association that aims to integrate local people in the conservation of the highly biodiverse Osa Peninsula, and more specifically the busy sea turtle nesting beaches of Rio Oro and Carate. They focus on marginalized communities in rural areas where individuals are looking to make positive change away from mining, hunting and poaching inside the Corcovado National Park area. Billion Baby Turtles supported this project with US$ 10,000 for this year. 

Olive ridley hatchlings from Costa Rica. Photo: COPROT

Sea Turtle Conservancy, Tortuguero, Costa Rica 

Sea Turtle Conservancy has conducted research and monitoring Tortuguero Beach since the mid-1950s. Tortuguero hosts a globally important green turtle rookery that regularly receives more than 100,000 green turtle nests per year. From 2010 through 2020, green turtle nesting at Tortuguero has ranged from a low of 48,625 nests in 2017 to a high of 180,310 nests in 2010. During this ten-year timeframe, the average annual number of green turtle nests was 109,868 nests. STC recorded 68,453 nests in 2020, which continued what appears to be a recent downward nesting trend that STC has observed since 2014. This beach produces around 8,230,212 green turtle hatchlings every season. This is the first year that SEE Turtles support this project with a grant of US $10,000 through our Billion Baby Turtles program.

Sea Turtle Conservancy, Soropta, Panama 

Soropta Beach is a 14-km Beach hosts between 200 – 800 leatherback nests per year, making it one of the most densely nested beaches for this species in the region. Unfortunately, illegal hunting of leatherback nests remains an issue due to its isolated location, relative ease of access and cultural tradition of sea turtle egg and meat consumption in the area.  In 2021 this beach had the a record of 1,484 nests at this beach but lost 48% of them due to illegal take. In 2022, STC is implementing a two-pronged approach to curtail illegal egg taking: implementing a hatchery and directly housing law enforcement personnel at STC’s Biological Research Station. Billion Baby Turtles supported this project with a grant of US $7,000 in addition to bringing our first Panama conservation tour this year.

Nesting leatherback from Soropta, Panama. Photo: Brad Nahill / SEE Turtles

Estación Las Tortugas, Mondonguillo Beach, Costa Rica

Estación Las Tortugas is a sea turtle nesting project to help protect the vulnerable leatherback sea turtle from the illegal egg collection and to help its recovery on a national and international level in the 3 km beach. Being part of the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, and together with the other beaches on that coast side of Costa Rica, this beach is part of one of the most important nesting sites in the world for the Atlantic leatherback sea turtle. This project protects every year between 300 and 600 nests of leatherbacks and sporadic nests of green and hawksbill turtles and more than 12,000 baby turtles are helped to the ocean every year. Billion Baby Turtles supported Estación Las Tortugas with a grant of US $2,000 this season. 

Inclusivity Fund Profile - Angelica Burgos

Note: Our Sea Turtle Inclusivity Fund provides financial support for young leaders from local communities near sea turtle habitats in developing countries around the world to advance their careers. This is a piece written by our most recent scholarship winner.

My name is Angelica Burgos. I am a Marine Biology student at the Universidad de Oriente Núcleo Nueva Esparta (Venezuela). From an early age, I have awakened an interest in animals and nature. I have been a collaborator of wildlife conservation programs on Isla de Margarita, and for years I belonged to the Scouts Association of Venezuela.

I haven't been able to continue with my plans because I have a chronic health situation, which, although not serious, has limited my opportunities. For me, this scholarship means an opportunity to continue my studies focused on marine life and conservation, and an impetus to start researching the threats facing sea turtles to generate possible solutions in the future. The Island of Margarita-Venezuela has great biodiversity and needs professionals who are dedicated to getting to know it to take care of it and conserve it. I want to be part of the solution and build a better world where the conservation of marine species is a priority.

With this inclusivity fund grant I have the opportunity to start a path towards sea turtle research, which will strengthen my training and will motivate me to generate real actions in the world of conservation.

Thanks to the SEE turtles Team for the great opportunity and to the MSc Marine Biologist Clemente Balladares for being a fundamental support for the procedures to obtain this scholarship, for his dedication, and for being the guide in this process.

Exploring Bocas del Toro, Panama

Our small plane eased gently out of the clouds to show the full archipelago of Bocas del Toro on a sunny June day. This area region on Panama, known for visitors from nearby Costa Rica, is truly an ecological gem. Composed of nine main islands, along with beautiful bays and ocean, mangrove cayes, and the northern Caribbean coastline, Bocas del Toro is home to a large part of the country’s indigenous population as well as native flora and fauna. After a quick stop for lunch in Bocas town, located on Isla Colon, we headed out by boat to the Soropta Field Station, along the mainland coast about an hour ride away.

Our group was here for our first Panama Leatherbacks & Hawksbill trip with our partners and friends at the Sea Turtle Conservancy. For five nights, we would be walking the turtle nesting beach and supporting the research and conservation work by our partners. We passed by a local family known for its illegal collection of turtle eggs, a stark reminder that much work remains to be done to protect these nesting turtles and their eggs. We arrived to the station in time for a release of leatherback hatchlings to the ocean, a wonderful introduction to the station.

 That night we were treated to a rare experience; the Sea Turtle Conservancy staff were putting a satellite transmitter on a leatherback turtle, as part of their Tour de Turtles, a fun race between turtles in various spots around the Caribbean and Atlantic (follow this turtle CU-perina II here). While putting a transmitting on a leatherback is a bit more intensive than gluing a transmitter to the carapace of a hard-shell turtle, the information collected is critical to understanding the life cycle of these turtles. On our way back from witnessing this nesting turtle, our group encountered another and several of the group were able to help with the eggs to bring them to the hatchery, where they will be protected until hatching.

The next day, we had an introduction to the research being carried out at Soropta. This beach is one of the more important leatherback beaches in the Caribbean and has seen dramatic increases in nesting over the past few years. This season was a down one compared to a year ago, but still had more than 700 nests this season to date. STC staff are working on research to understand the composition of the sex of the leatherback hatchlings, as well as the health of this population. SEE Turtles, through our Billion Baby Turtles program, has been helping to fund the work at this beach since 2013, having provided more than $45,000 which has helped to save an estimated 60,000 leatherback hatchlings.

The next night, we headed out for another night of patrolling the beach. Shortly after the skies opened up, and the rain and wind kicked in, a turtle arrived. But members of our group got the full turtle experience, waiting until she nested and helped to bring the eggs to the hatchery just as the rain subsided. The next day, we headed to the Oreba Chocolate Tour, a wonderful activity run by the Ngobe indigenous community. Their fantastic guides showed us around their community, showing how the cacao is grown and processed, along with some of the plants and animals they use for sustenance and medicine. At the end of the trip, we were served a delicious traditional lunch and picked up chocolate and other crafts for souvenirs.

One day, our group collectively decided to get up for sunrise to see if there was a late nester that we might be able to see in the daylight. I was up a bit before the group and could see a beautiful sunrise forming over the water so I headed out to the beach to see if I could spot a turtle. I quickly noticed just a few meters from the entrance to the beach a dark spot of sand that was obviously a nest. Thinking we had missed a turtle right in front, as I started to walk over to inspect the nest, I noticed movement and realized the turtle was still there! I quickly ran back to the station to alert the group and back out to start taking photographs.

Nesting leatherback in Soropta. Photo: Brad Nahill / SEE Turtles

 I spent several seasons working with leatherbacks in Costa Rica and have visited dozens of nesting beaches around the world but this was the best turtle experience I’ve had. Between the happy group, the beautiful sunrise, and witnessing the full nesting process in daylight, it was a morning I’ll never forget. Later that day, we headed out for a tour of the area’s canals, seeing many species of birds along the waters.

We wrapped up our tour visiting a couple of spots around the archipelago. The first stop was Starfish Beach, the most popular spots in the country, filling up with sunbathers every weekend. This area was visited by Christopher Columbus on his fourth visit to the hemisphere in the early 1500’s. Fortunately for us, we went on a Thursday when it was much more relaxed. We borrowed some snorkeling gear to check out the many sea stars around the clear waters, and relaxed with drinks by the beach. That night we had a free night to explore Bocas town, the main tourist area of the archipelago.

On our final full day, we did a full day tour of the islands, starting with looking for sloths along the water’s edge and bottlenose dolphins in the bays (we saw several of both). Later we headed to an area to snorkel and see some of the fish and coral species that live here. Finally, we ended with a picnic lunch on Zapatilla Caye, one of three islands in the Bastimentos National Marine Park where hawksbill turtles nest. While it was too early to see any hawksbills, we were able to take a walk through the island and snorkel in the crystal blue waters. SEE Turtles, through our partnership with the Berman Memorial Fund, has also been supporting the hawksbill nesting work of renowned researchers Annie & Peter Meylan, who have worked with community members for decades.

On our final night in Bocas, we met for a group dinner in a beautiful restaurant along the water. Unfortunately we had another taste of the reality of the situation for sea turtles in this area, witnessing two vendors who had tortoiseshell products for sale at tables along the main street. The good news for hawksbills is that since the end of the legal international trade, their numbers have grown significantly in this area and others, but the illegal trade continues to threaten this critically endangered species. Our Too Rare To Wear program is working to combat this trade (check out our SEE Shell App that can ID these products here) and we’re hopeful that hawksbills can recover over the long-term. With partners like Sea Turtle Conservancy leading the way, much progress is being made in Panama and around the world.

April Billion Baby Turtles Report

Past Grant Reports

Our Billion Baby Turtles program is on pace for a record year of saving sea turtles. Check out the results from grants from last year and our April grants from 2022!

Comunidad Protectora de Tortugas de Osa, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

This organization protects especially olive ridleys and green turtles and sporadically hawksbills and leatherbacks at 3 beaches (Playa Carate, Pejeperro, and Río Oro). This is one of the most biodiverse areas in Costa Rica. Since 2019 Tortugas de Osa monitoring and research projects offer the opportunity to involve different local actors, volunteers and conservation organizations, to contribute to the protection and monitoring of marine turtles. 

During the 2021-2022 nesting season Billion Baby Turtles supported this project with US$ 10,000, helping to protect a total of 6,278 ridleys and 379 pacific green nesting females. The hatchling emergence for olive ridleys was 60% and 83.4% for green turtles. The estimated total production of baby turtles  across all their 3 beaches for ridleys was 450,000 and 25,000 for the Pacific green turtles. 

Olive ridley hatchlings from Costa Rica. Photo from COPROT.

Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund, Nancite, Costa Rica

Playa Nancite is the second most important nesting site for olive ridley sea turtles in Costa Rica. The arribadas of these turtles generally result in between 20,000 and 116,000 nests each year. Green turtles also nest at Nancite beach, but in much smaller numbers (between 20 and 65 nests per year). Turtle biologist Luis Fonseca has been studying the sea turtles of this area for more than a decade. His research covers the prey/predator phenomenon between nesting sea turtles and jaguar populations at Nancite beach, the first beach where such interactions have been extensively documented. With a US $3,000 grant, SEE Turtles supported Luis Fonseca research at this important beach.

In the 2021 season 68,230 nests of olive ridley turtles were protected, helping to get into the ocean 3,872,716 baby turtles. They also protected 26 nests of green turtles, helping 1,165 hatchlings of this species. With US$ 3,000 Billion Baby Turtles supported this beach for continue its work this year.

New Grants

Sea Turtle Conservancy, Panama (US $ 7,000)

After more than 20 years of sea turtle research in Bocas del Toro Province, Anne and Peter Meylan formed a partnership with STC in 2003 to monitor increasing nesting hawksbills along the Bocas coast (covering ~50 km of beach in recent years). The area of concentrated work by the Meylans has been three important nesting beaches: Small Zapatilla Cay, Big Zapatilla Cay (both since 2003), and Playa Larga (since 2006), all of which lie completely within the boundaries of the Bastimentos Island National Marine Park (BINMP). Research activities are conducted by beach monitors hired from local indigenous communities with help during most years from international student volunteers. In the last 8 years and thanks to the protection of the area, the number of hawksbill nests have doubled. In 2021, more than 140,000 hawksbill hatchlings are estimated to have been protected on BINMP beaches.

STC researcher Arcelio with a hawksbill turtle in Panama. Photo by Peter & Annie Meylan

Asociación Salvemos las Tortugas de Parismina (ASTOP), Costa Rica (US$ 3,000)

ASTOP protects the 6-km beach between the Parismina River and the Pearl Lagoon. This stretch is among the 10 most important beaches for nesting leatherbacks on the Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. This organization protects more than 200 leatherback, more than 100 green turtles, and sporadic hawksbills that nests every year.  In previous monitoring work, some season more than 20,000 hatchlings can be protected at this beach, with a calculated cost of 60 cents per baby turtle saved. 

Ecosystem Impact Foundation, Indonesia (US$ 10,000)

This nonprofit organization works in Bangkaru Island protecting primarily green turtles and sporadic nesting leatherbacks. In addition to the protection of nesting turtles, Ecosystem Impact develops law enforcement capacity, campaign and advocacy work, community awareness, rangers training, and social media education.

Last season, Ecosystem Impact implemented for the first time a conservation program in this area, working with the community and rangers patrols. This work has led to the increased protection for these turtle nesting populations in the island, with a result in reduction of illegal collection. They also collected data on the project  focus species which has fed into international research and conservation discussion. Due to concerns around turtle nests being lost to beach erosion and lizard predation, relocation of most at risk nests has been implemented and they are also working in further mitigation and research for these populations. With US$ 10,000 they expect to protect around 62,500 baby turtles for this season

Ocean Foundation: Guanahacabibes National Park, Cuba (US$ 5,000)

Since 1998, the Ocean Foundation’s Cuba Marine Research and Conservation Program (CMRC) has built strong scientific collaboration and conservation programs between Cuba, the United States, and neighboring countries that share marine resources. Eight beaches are patrolled during the nesting and hatchling seasons (May to October) on the Guanahacabibes Peninsula. As for green turtle nesting population, it is the second largest of the Cuban archipelago and also exhibits high levels of hatching success.

The main goals of this project are to monitor and protect nesting areas, record morphometric, nests and eggs information, study, temperature and humidity to determine the best conditions, expand studies on existing genetic diversity for this area, assess the impact of climate change on the reproductive success of sea turtles, train university students and volunteers, and develop educational work in local communities. With this grant, Billion Baby Turtles will help to protect around 35,000 baby turtles in this area. 

Green turtle nesting in Guanahacabibes. Photo from Dr. Julia Azanza.

Sea Turtle Inclusivity Fund

PAMALI, Indonesia 

SEE Turtles launched our Sea Turtle inclusivity Fund in 2021 as a way to increase inclusion, diversity, and local community participation in our field. Our first three winners were from Latin America, Keithlyn Rankin of Costa Rica, Luna Viera of Brazil, and Royner Carrasquero of Venezuela. We’re excited to announce our first winner from Asia, Busdar Marabatuan from PAMaLi Indonesia.

With a grant of US $2,517, the Inclusivity Fund will cover Busdar’s salary for a year in the position of Ranger Coordinator, where he will be responsible for 4 Rangers. “My career goal in the position of Ranger Coordinator is to contribute to the development and progress of turtle conservation and strive to be an investment by creating a dynamic and innovative work environment.” -Busdar

Learn more about Busdar here.

Busdar with a juvenile hawksbill turtle in Indonesia. Photo: PAMaLi.

Meet our newest Inclusivity Fund Winner, Busdar Marabatuan

SEE Turtles launched our Sea Turtle inclusivity Fund in 2021 as a way to increase inclusion, diversity, and local community participation in our field. Our first three winners were from Latin America, Keithlyn Rankin of Costa Rica, Luna Viera of Brazil, and Royner Carrasquero of Venezuela. We’re excited to announce our first winner from Asia, Busdar Marabatuan from PAMaLi Indonesia. We wanted to share an introduction provided by him below.

My name is Busdar, I love sea turtles. I was born to parents who are very close to the coast and the sea. I was born on a remote island in Indonesia, namely Marabatuan Island, Pulau Sembilan District, Kotabaru Regency, South Kalimantan Province. My education from elementary school to junior high school was completed on Marabatuan Island, but for high school I was forced to migrate to the district capital because at that time there was no high school on the island.

My familiarity and familiarity with the coast and the sea formed my character. I am a lover of biological natural resources and their ecosystems such as the presence of turtles on the surrounding islands. I am really very concerned about the level of threat to the turtle population, which has decreased drastically over time, mainly due to the impact of illegal hunting and habitat destruction.

Over time, my growing concern for the sustainability of turtles on Pulau Sembilan prompted me to approach and join friends who at that time were not yet a PAMaLi association but were just a youth community who longed for turtle conservation through turtle conservation activities. For about 10 years, together with friends in the youth community who care about turtles, they have voiced concerns about the fate of turtles, which at that time trading in eggs and a small portion of meat and scales was still very widespread and open even though the government of the Republic of Indonesia had actually banned it through the laws and regulations of the Republic of Indonesia. In 2015, I determined to deepen my knowledge and insight in the field of wildlife conservation by accepting a vacancy as a volunteer at PROFAUNA Indonesia, a local organization based on the island of Java, precisely in Malang City, East Java. There I gained a lot of knowledge and insight related to wildlife and forests, and had an internship as a Ranger in the Wehea Forest, East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

 The climax was at the 2015 Saijaan Expo, an exhibition event at the Regency level that showcased local products from every sub-district on Pulau Sembilan. At that time, the Pulau Sembilan stand also offered turtle eggs to be sold in a pack of 10 seeds for Rp. 50.000. We, along with the youth community who care about turtles (the forerunner of Pamali Indonesia) contacted local journalists to cover the state of the Pulau Sembilan stand. Sure enough, the Pulau Sembilan stand still offered the protected turtle eggs for sale. And when the news was brought up to the television media, it immediately provoked a reaction from the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries who was then held by Mrs. Susi Pudjiastuti.

After a few days, Mrs. Susi Pudjiastuti, the Minister, issued a circular addressed to Regional Heads, Governors, Mayors, and Regents to pay attention to the protection of turtles and their habitats in Indonesia. The Minister also ordered a work unit at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries to go down to the field to inspect the Saijaan Expo exhibition arena. As a follow-up to the findings of the incident, the central government of the Republic of Indonesia through the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries held a National Action Plan (RAN) program for Turtles from 2016-2019 and I decided to return and join the National Action Plan for Turtle KKP RI as one of the Enumerators for Turtle Conservation in the period 2016-2018. Over the next 2 years, he went back to deepen his knowledge and insight in the field of turtle protection and conservation by joining as a Turtle Conservation Ranger in the turtle conservation program on the islands of Bilang Angka, Balembangan, and Sambit with the Indonesian Turtle Foundation in the period 2019-2021. (Note, SEE Turtles Billion Baby Turtles program has been supporting the work on Sambit Island as well.)

That's a bit of my life's journey, especially those related to my life which intersects with the issue of wildlife conservation and their habitat, especially turtles. I want to continue to learn new things about the issue of turtle conservation in the hope that I can continue to explore things that are relevant to my career and passion so that I have more knowledge and insights that develop so that I can make a positive contribution to turtle conservation, both in the short term and in the long term. I believe that one day I can reach a senior position with experience in the field of turtle conservation and then we can share knowledge and insights about turtle conservation with junior turtle conservation activists now and in the future.

In that period of time, both what I have traveled and what I will take will not be short and easy, but will be full of challenges. However, I will continue to adapt, establish relationships, and expand my network to turtle conservation activists, either nationally, regionally or internationally. At the same time, he remains active and productive in his activities in the field of turtle conservation that he is engaged in. My career goal in the position of Ranger Coordinator is to contribute to the development and progress of turtle conservation and strive to be an investment by creating a dynamic and innovative work environment.

The career I chose as Ranger Coordinator is closely related to my work experience, so I will try my best to make a positive contribution to turtle conservation. For me, applying for a job involved in the issue of turtle conservation is very interesting, especially since I can learn by doing. It is certain that this will be a very valuable experience for enriching my knowledge and broadening my horizons on the issue of turtle conservation. Next, I will use my passion and talent in working for the sake of changing the knowledge, views, actions of people around us, both in Indonesia and in the world, especially on Pulau Sembilan which is the most important turtle habitat in South Kalimantan. Finally, let's think locally and act globally. The welfare of the turtle is a mandate from God which is entrusted to his trusted creatures, yes we, humans.

Billion Baby Turtles Feb / March 2022 Update

We’re excited to start a new regular series of updates for our Billion Baby Turtles and Sea Turtles & Plastic programs. Check back early each month to read about results from our partner grants and new grants to help save sea turtles around the world!

February 2022 Billion Baby Turtles Reports:

Sea Turtle Conservancy: Soropta Beach ,Panama

STC protects leatherback and sporadic hawksbill and green turtles at this beach in the northern Caribbean. During the 2021 season (from March 1 to August 17) SCT recorded 1,484 leatherback nests on Soropta Beach, which is the highest nest count recorded here since the beginning of this program. They did 1033 hours of night patrols, recording 647 encounters with leatherbacks. The total hatchling production at Soropta Beach in 2021 was 19,569 (18,412 leatherbacks and 1,155 hawksbills).

Funding from Billion Baby Turtles was used to cover the expenses involved in implementing monitoring and protection activities throughout 2021, including salaries, food and housing costs for project staff; purchase field equipment, such as flipper tags, headlights and data books; and gas for the project boat, which was needed to transport staff and supplies to/from the field station. With US $4,000 SEE Turtles helped to protect  350 nests and almost 5,000 hatchlings with a cost of 81 cents each baby turtle. 

Leatherback hatchling from Soropta

Soropta Field Station

Latin America Sea Turtles- LAST: Cahuita Beach & Pacuare Beaches, Costa Rica

Since 2000 ANAI and LAST non-profit organizations have worked made uninterrupted efforts for the protection and conservation of nesting females and baby sea turtles in Cahuita Beach. During the last decade it was estimated that 90% of the nests at this beach were lost by wildlife predation, illegal egg collectors, poachers or washed out by the ocean. Cahuita’s nest population represents one of the highest numbers reported for Caribbean hawksbill turtles in Costa RicaCR. Thus the importance of the protection of this beach. In 2021, SEE Turtles supported this project with US $4,500 USD. During this season the project recovered 32 nests of hawksbill and one of green turtle, with a total of 4,943 eggs. After the incubation period they released a total of 3,645 baby turtles with a success rate of 73,74%. All of the hatchlings baby turtles were released to the ocean in front of Puerto Vargas area at Cahuita National Park (CNP).

At Pacuare Beach, From February to July 2021 LAST monitored and protected lLeatherback nests in Pacuare. In this region, the illegal egg collection, still continues as a common practice;, just this season 34% of the total nests were collected (76). In the 2021 season, SEE Turtles supported the Pacuare project with US$ 5,000. During this period, 224 nests were protected, either moving them to the hatchery or relocating them to safer areas. They had a success rate of 78% and they released a total of 9,704 leatherback baby turtles.

Grupo Ecologista Quelonios, Punta Xen, Mexico

Since 1992 Quelonios established a program for the protection and preservation of hawksbill turtles in Punta Xen, covering 30 kilometers of beaches in the coastal zone of Champotón. This is one of the most important beaches for this critically endangered species in Mexico. For the 2021 season, they protected a total of 1,783 nests and 238,963 eggs with a hatching success of 73% with a total of 173,495 hatchlings. With US$ 4,000, Billion Baby Turtles supported Quelonios to protect 80 nests and almost 8,000 baby turtles to get to the ocean. 

Quelonios Hatchery

Hawksbill hatchling from Quelonios

ProCosta, Bahía de Jiquilisco, El Salvador

ProCosta has been working in Bahía de Jiquilisco since 2008 protecting nesting hawksbills. Prior to the establishment of the project, 100% of the nests and even some adult turtles were illegally collected and locals were unaware of the importance of their communities for this species. This project brings monitoring to the beach, nests protection and social outreach for local communities. During the 2021 season the project staff and local hawksbill conservation networks monitored 42 km of nesting beaches for 300 days. There were 310 nests during the whole season, and 308 were protected, with a hatching success of 53%. These efforts helped  24,949 baby turtles to get to the ocean. There were also 200 local families involved and benefited from this program. Billion Baby Turtles supported this project with US$ 5,000. 

March 2022 Billion Baby Turtles Grant Reports

Barbados Sea Turtle Project: Barbados)

This program protects primarily especially hawksbills but also some leatherbacks and green turtles. For more than 25 years, this project has been involved in conservation of sea turtles that nest on Barbados through research, education, and public outreach as well as monitoring of nesting females, juveniles and hatchlings. SEE Turtles has supported this project since 2020. The total number of hawksbills recorded nesting in the 2021 nesting season (June to November) was 494. With a grant of US $3,000, SEE Turtles helped to protect 90 nests and 10,831 baby turtles, with a cost of 27 cents per hatchling saved. The project had an estimated more than 237,000 total hatchlings for the 2021 season. 

Reef Guardians: Lankayan Island, Malaysia (Reef Guardians)

Since 2004, this project has protected hawksbill and green turtles nesting on Lankayan Island, in Malaysia. Since then, the annual nesting increased gradually from 138 nests in 2004 to 833 2021. This year they protected 726 nests of greens and 107 nests of hawksbill turtles. In 2021, the organization recorded the 2nd highest total for the last 21 years. A total of 74,506 eggs were incubated for both species with a total of 59,863 hatchlings helped to get  to the sea. With US $2,000, Billion Baby Turtles supported the protection of 60 nests and 4,000 baby turtles.

Ocean Foundation: Cuba, Guanahacabibes National Park, Cuba

Since 1998 the Ocean Foundation’s Cuba Marine Research and Conservation Program (CMRC) has built strong scientific collaboration and conservation programs between Cuba, the United States, and neighboring countries that share marine resources. Eight beaches are patrolled during the nesting and hatchling seasons (May to October) in Guanahacabibes Peninsula. As for green turtle nesting population, it is the second largest of the Cuban archipelago and also exhibits high levels of hatching success. During the 2021 season they registered 685 nests of gGreen turtles and 2 of hHawksbills and reported a very high hatchling success with 910.84%. However, many nests were lost due to environmental conditions. During this season SEE Turtles supported this organization with US $3,500, helping approximately 25,000 baby turtles to get to the ocean.

March 2022 New Billion Baby Turtles & Plastic Grants

Karumbé: La Coronilla, Uruguay

#Plastic Free Turtles will organize collaborative beach cleaning actions with the participation of coastal communities and local organizations of La Coronilla and Punta del Diablo (Rocha, Uruguay) for the removal of  plastic waste in coastal-maritime habitats in the area. These activities will be supported by the creation of environmental awareness and the empowerment of communities towards a circular and more sustainable economy. In addition, a systematic monitoring of the abundance and trend of aggregation of plastics within the Cerro Verde Marine Protected Area  will be implemented through the removal of plastic waste by the Karumbé team, along with the management and treatment of plastic waste originating in the organization's base camp. 

Once classified and cleaned, all of the collected waste will be transported for subsequent recycling by the company Plasticoin-Uruguay generating a virtual currency in exchange  for the total weight of waste delivered. This virtual currency will be reinvested in veterinary products and other supplies for the rehabilitation of sea turtles with problems of plastic intake (and other pathologies) in the rescue and rehabilitation center of Karumbé.  

Karumbe volunteers cleaning the beach in Uruguay

PROVITA: Paria Gulf, Venezuela

Near the estuary of the Orinoco River delta and the Paria Mountains National Park in Venezuela are several small beaches where leatherback and hawksbills sea turtle nests each year. The region in the early 2000’s century and before had a strong hunting pressure; the conservation project reduced that from 88% (in 2003) to 1% (2015) but since 2016 a lack of funds and habitat destruction has restarted the impact on the marine reptiles. This project’s goal for 2022 is to rescue a hundred nests, gather all the reproductive data from 5 main nesting beaches, and deter hunting through patrolling and transplanting nests to a secure hatchery in the town of Macuro.

Ayotlcalli, the Little Turtle Group That Could

There are many reasons that a turtle conservation organization like Ayotlcalli should not exist. The group was started by a school teacher, Damaris Marin-Smith and her husband Gene Smith who had no experience with sea turtles and no experience with running a nonprofit. Heck, she was afraid of the ocean and didn’t like sand or mosquitoes, let alone saw herself leading an effort to protect an ocean creature! But there she is, inspiring her community to protect turtles and their nests, educating kids, and showing the older and better funded organizations how it should be done. Ayotlcalli has succeeded over the past decade with minimal financial support but a boatload of passion and enthusiasm.

Olive ridley hatchling released by Ayotlcalli

 Walking around the communities of Barra de Potosi, Zihuatanejo, and Ixtapa with Damaris is like being in the entourage of a celebrity. People’s faces light up when she arrives and everyone wants a hug. It is difficult to go more than 30 minutes around this area with her and not meet one of her many volunteers.

 Ayotlcalli, which means “Place of the Turtle” in the indigenous Nahua language, began in 2011 when Damaris was visiting family in Zihuatanejo. An ecologist friend who lived there told her about the sea turtles nesting in this area and the problems they were facing including people eating turtles and their eggs, as well as feral dogs. In the evening, the friend took Damaris out to the beach to see a nest of hatchlings that a community member had saved and was releasing and later she saw a nesting turtle. The tears that flowed from the turtles eyes while expelling the salt water caused Damaris to tear up herself, and from there she was hooked.

Photo: Bridget Fahey

Damaris and Leo, a donor and member of Ayotlcalli

 In the first years of the project, Damaris and Gene played the role of international donors, funding the construction of a hatchery and supporting the effort out of her pocket from her home in Houston, Texas. That first nesting season, the work started late and only found a couple of nests, but they kept working at it, and the following season they had much more success. However, by the third year of the project, her friend decided to move and Damaris was going to close the project. But some of the volunteers working there at the time convinced her to keep going and helped to manage the project over the next few seasons.

 Her reach goes well beyond the turtles nesting on the three beaches where Ayotlcalli works; her popular camps attract kids both wealthy and not wealthy, for two weeks of learning about the natural world. From hands on work with the turtles, to cleaning the beaches, observing whales, visiting local wildlife refuges, and more, Damaris puts her teaching skills to work. The kids learn leadership and build social skills while gaining an appreciation for wildlife and their extraordinary community. (SEE Turtles has provided financial support for the camp.)

In 2017, Damaris retired from teaching in Houston and instead of relaxing or traveling the world, she and Gene began to manage the organization directly. She threw herself into learning about these animals and how to best protect them. She attended conferences and symposia to build her knowledge, meeting experts like Dr. Andy Coleman, Assistant Professor of Biology at Talladega College, who visited and provided guidance as the program grew.

 The areas where Ayotlcalli works include Playa Larga, Playa Blanca, and Barra de Potosi, in addition to supporting efforts on nearby Ixtapa Island. They work to protect four species of sea turtles that nest in this area, including the critically endangered hawksbill, the locally endangered leatherback, olive ridleys, and black turtles (a sub-species of the green turtle). Each season, they protect more than 800 olive ridley nests along with a handful of nests of the other species. They release more than 80,000 hatchlings each season, protecting nearly 90 percent of the nests, which is a tremendous accomplishment on long beaches with few staff. Our Billion Baby Turtles program provided a grant in 2021 and we plan to continue supporting the project in future seasons.

 On our recent visit, my colleague Dr. Adriana Cortes and I were impressed by Damaris’ energy and sincerity. But as we visited their hatchery (where the nests are watched until hatching), we were caught by surprise as she showed us Ayotlcalli’s data collection system. Where most sea turtle organizations continue to use data sheets on paper (even the most well-funded organizations do this), Damaris pulled out her phone and opened an app. With fields for all of the information any turtle project could want to collect, volunteers can fill out all of the data, collect the exact GPS location of the nest, and immediately notify Damaris. The hatchery was on a similar system, with alerts for when nests are ready to hatch, which species is which nest, and more. It was the most advanced data collection system either of us had ever seen (and we have visited a lot of turtle nesting beaches between us). The system was set up by local expat volunteers Mitchell Thorp and Patty Sullivan, who were able to get the app cost donated.

Visitors releasing olive ridley hatchlings as part of an Ayotlcalli activity.

But as great as this system is, Damaris’ most impressive skill is her teaching. We brought a group of friends to visit and release hatchlings one evening, and her presentation was one of the most entertaining and engaging sea turtle talks I’ve ever seen. Adults and kids alike were enthralled by her love for these animals. Adriana and I even learned new things from her hatchling release, such as using individual bowls for each hatchling, which eliminated the need for disposable plastic gloves while still giving each person an intimate experience with their hatchling. The entire sea turtle community could learn a lot by Damaris and Ayotlcalli, SEE Turtles hopes to help make that happen.

The Galapagos: Wildlife In Every Direction

The first thing you notice about going to the famed Galapagos Islands, before you even arrive, is how complicated it is to get there, especially during a pandemic. Flying there from Guayaquil is more like an international flight than domestic, from the multiple checks you get, additional paperwork, and even a quick fumigation on the plane before you disembark. This is all for a reason of course, a really good one: the Galapagos are a unique ecosystem and that requires visitors to be especially careful about what is brought in (and taken out). These islands are host to many invasive species that impact local wildlife, so steps are taken to make sure new ones are not brought with every new visitor.

The second thing you notice about the islands is how seamlessly wildlife is incorporated into daily life. From the sea lions occupying every bench within sight of the water, to the giant tortoises loitering along the road, to the ever-present iguanas wandering around. I’ve traveled around Central & South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean but I’ve never seen anything quite like this. To miss the wild animals here could only be done by walking around blindfolded.

After our arrival to the Baltra airport and transfer to our hotel in Puerto Ayora, our first stop was the Darwin Research Center, located on the edge of the island’s largest town. To explore the Galapagos National Park, you must hire a local guide to protect both the traveler and the animals, so we met our guide and did a walking tour through the campus. Darwin’s finches flitted about the ground, giant cacti grew in the desert scrubland, and various displays on the history of human and wild inhabitants on the islands, including the famous biologist himself. The tour ends with a visit to the breeding center of the famous giant tortoises, getting to see each part of the life cycle from hatchlings to retired breeding adults, and a visit to the final resting place of the famous Lonesome George.

The third thing you notice about the Galapagos is how varied the topography is and how quickly it changes with even slight difference in elevation. Our second day started with ride up to the Santa Cruz highlands to visit the Gemelos, huge twin sinkholes that offer a glimpse of the geologic history of the islands. Then we paid a visit to the El Chato Ranch to see where the giant tortoises migrate after nesting to mate and feed. Our visit wrapped up with a walk through a lava tunnel and a visit to the gift shop where you can pose inside a tortoise shell (though not the kind of shell we focus on with our Too Rare To Wear program!)

That afternoon we boarded a ferry to Isabela Island, the largest of the archipelago, about a two hour ride away. We arrived and transferred to our hotel which looks over a wetland with resident flamingos and other birds. That night, we had a surprise over dinner; two of our clients got engaged (a first for our trips)! The restaurant set up a special performance of a singer and a silk dancer, making the evening special.

Our first exploration of Isabella was a visit to a tortoise breeding center run by Galapagos National Park. Next we took a bike ride around Humedales, a wetland site that is home to many iguanas, tortoises, birds like blue footed boobies, and other animals. After lunch, some of the group walked to another wetland estuary, Concha de Toro, where we snorkeled around with sea lions, rays, and turtles. That evening, our group started its participation in our local partner Intercultural Outreach Initiative’s sea turtle research program. The beach along Puerto Villamil is home to a small population of nesting green sea turtles. Our group participated in beach walks each evening and morning though we were not lucky enough to see a sea turtle nest or hatch while we were there.

On day five, we headed up into the Isabela highlands, visiting a sustainable farm called Bellavista that IOI is supporting with its sustainable agriculture program. Our group toured the farm, soaked in the great views of the island, and each took a turn helping to milk a cow and learn how the family makes cheese and yogurt. This was followed by a wonderful lunch with the best pumpkin soup I’ve ever had, all prepared locally by the family. Upland farms like Bellavista were key to feeding the island’s residents during the pandemic as food became scarce when the island was cut off for long periods from the mainland.

The next day, we took a short boat ride to Tintoreras, a volcanic island that is home to penguins, iguanas, sea lions, and much more. We took a short walk through the lava rock, taking precautions to avoid nesting iguanas. We saw a black tip reef shark prowling the shallow water and observed three penguins hanging out on the lava rock, as well as blue footed boobies and other birds. That was followed by a snorkel where we spotted a sea turtle, rays, and many species of fish. Later that afternoon, a group of us took out tandem kayaks to explore the area more, getting our first opportunity to see sea turtles feeding on the algae growing on the shallow ocean floor.

Our final full day on Isabela was everyone’s favorite. We hopped on a boat to head to an area called Tuneles, a fascinating land and coastal waterscape of lava rock interspersed with both mangrove trees and cacti. We wound through the rock formations spotting sea turtle heads popping out of the water. Taking a short walk around the area, we watched from above as green turtles with fascinating orange spots wound their way through the tunnels. After that, we stopped at an area inside the tunnels to snorkel, seeing large schools of fish. The highlight though was a different spot we visited, a feeding area where we saw at least twelve green turtles. For me, this was an especially fun experience as it was my first time witnessing a cleaning station, with wrasses darting around a turtle’s mouth cleaning it of parasites. We also got to see a surprisingly large seahorse, its tail wrapped around a submerged tree branch.

Photo: Peter Tejada Flor

The visions of wild animals in every direction will stay with my long after this visit. Everybody should experience this extraordinary mixture of life at least once in their lives.

Sea Turtle Inclusivity Fund Update - My Experience in Cabuyal

By Keithlyn Rankin

Keithlyn Rankin

This was my visit to Cabuyal beach working with The Leatherback Trust (TLT), the first time as an intern and then as a research assistant and both times I have learned a lot about working in the field with sea turtles. I am very grateful to Bibi Santidrian and her team for the opportunity to do an internship as a university student in 2020 and now in 2021 / 2022 with the scholarship from the SEE Turtles Inclusivity Fund.

TLT is an organization that works hard on the conservation of sea turtles; the programs they have with interns, assistants and volunteers are very accessible and the work done is of the utmost importance. The place where I was working, Cabuyal, is not well known by people outside of Costa Rica’s Guanacaste Province but it is an important nesting beach of the olive ridley sea turtle. Although TLT focuses on leatherback sea turtles, data is also taken from the other species that visit the beach and I noticed that the population that nests the most is that of olive ridley turtles; green turtles and leatherback turtles also arrive. In this season we had very good numbers of new turtles compared to previous years; the visit of turtles was quite positive, until February that I was at the station there were a little more than 40 green turtles, 3 leatherback turtles, and many olive ridleys. This data makes clear the importance of this nesting beach in Costa Rica and the active dynamics of the population in this area of the Pacific.

In these months I shared with several of the people who live on or near this beach and it was interesting to comment on the anecdotes and stories, on the doubts and concerns generated by the behavior of sea turtles and on other issues that came to the fore. One day, a nest of olive ridleys turtles hatched during the afternoon, and the children who live near the beach grabbed the little turtles and took them to the station, a very good sign that shows the care they have with these animals. The clever children took the buckets they had at home and put sand inside, then they placed the little turtles and took them on quadricycles to the house where the biologists were; that night we released them to go to the sea. These actions demonstrate the community's interest in the welfare of the turtles. As a scientist and researcher, I believe that it is important to get involved with the people of the communities and learn from them while we teach them some management techniques and talk to them about the science, in such a way that together we can achieve a common goal, the conservation and care of sea turtles during their development and nesting process.

Other moments that I enjoyed during these months in Cabuyal were the girls' days. I remember that during the patrols and the censuses (daytime walks to count the tracks of the turtles that came out at night), I laughed a lot with my co-workers, sharing about the cultures of our countries. I practiced my English and we tried to save everything that we found along the way. Once with Heni, a friend from Germany, we saw a half-dead fish that was out of the sea, first we wondered if it was alive or not, so we touched it with a stick and the fish jumped. With the same stick I tried to put it back in the ocean, but that was not giving much results. The fish kept moving for a while and in a moment of desperation I put on a latex glove, took it by the tail and threw it into the sea. I looked at my partner again and we both celebrated. Yeei! We did it! But then I saw the fish again and it was floating on its side, it wasn't swimming, we stayed for a while to see what happened and well, we think it died because it never swam. The point of this not so happy story is that during work outings with the girls I had a lot of fun and learned from them too. I was with four Europeans, from Catalonia, the Basque Country, Germany, and Switzerland and also with Ticos (Costa Ricans) from Curridabat and the Zona de los Santos. These collaborations in organizations of this type allow you to meet people from different places and that has greatly enriched my personal life; I have made new friends and friends that I would like to be for life.

Thanks to this scholarship, I was able to actively participate in Cabuyal, be a patrol leader, train and accompany volunteers in their first encounters with sea turtles, and carry out various jobs in the field, such as excavations, taking the temperature of the sand at different depths and daytime censuses where the traces of the previous night are counted. All these activities are experiences that I acquired and hope to pass on in the next conservation projects in which I participate. During my stay in Cabuyal, I found moments of tranquility; sometimes I just sat down to watch the sun go down while the sky was completely painted orange or I got lost in the starry sky during the breaks of the night patrols, contemplating the constellations and the stars. Cabuyal is a beautiful beach during the day and at night; it is a charming place and when you add the sea turtles it makes it a magical place, even with the limitations that it presents such as the lack of telephone signal and the limited access to the "city.” Being in a place like this, these comforts of the city are not missed. I established many friendships in this place, thanks to technology I am now in contact with these people, however it is wonderful when you meet people who share the same love and some even the same passion for caring for sea turtles. It was quite a pleasant time and I am very grateful for it.

Saving Sea Turtles With NFT’s & Cryptocurrency Donations

I’ve worked in ocean and sea turtle conservation fundraising for the past two decades and have seen many different innovations that have helped nonprofits like SEE Turtles raise more funds. But I’ve never seen anything like the influx of funds now coming from the world of cryptocurrency and NFTs. In September of this year, we had basically zero crypto donations; now as we enter 2022, we have raised more than $90,000 from NFTs and other donations, more than ten percent of our total income.

We expect 2022 to be even better and these donations are a major part of our strategy to expand our organization and impact. We are now working with a number of different projects that have tremendous potential to impact sea turtle conservation efforts. We now accept crypto donations through our website here.

Since this area is new to many people, we wanted to share some information on how these projects work, how they are helping us save sea turtles, and answer some common questions about crypto philanthropy.

How Are Crypto & NFT Donations Helping Sea Turtles?

The $90,000 in donations that we have received to date have supported our work in the following ways:

• Our new collaboration with artist and sea turtle conservationist Andrew DiMatteo to release collectible NFTs from our hatchling photos will generate donations of 80% of the purchase price and come with both real world impact and real world benefits. Learn more and pick one up for yourself here.

• Roughly $60,000 in funding from Next Earth over the past three months has been divided between our Sea Turtles & Plastic, Too Rare To Wear, and Billion Baby Turtles programs. These funds have supported projects in Mexico and Kenya to clean up turtle nesting beaches and recycle the plastic into products that support conservation and local communities. For Too Rare To Wear, these funds will help us launch the world’s first phone app to use AI technology to identify illegal tortoiseshell products from photos.

• $30,000 in donations to date from @TurtlesNFT has supported our Billion Baby Turtles program, which provides funding for turtle nesting beaches around the world. With these funds, we have provided funding for nesting beaches in Costa Rica, Gabon, Panama, and Mexico that we expect to help save at least 300,000 hatchlings in total.

• $1,500 in funding from Beach Token is matching our $1,500 grant ($3,000 in total) to fund a nesting beach in Papua New Guinea run by the Conflict Islands Conservation Initiative to protect hawksbill and green turtles.

New NFT launching with MegafaunaNFT

Click here for a current list of supporters and projects.

What Are NFT’s?

 NFT stands for “non-fungible tokens” which is a unique digital form of ownership. Digital assets can be made into NFTs such as artwork, music, photos, and more. By creating this token, ownership of the asset is stored on a “blockchain” that authenticates the owner. Recently, NFT artwork has become a hot commodity, with some selling for as much as several million dollars. Depending on the specific NFT, there can be ways to earn income from reselling them as well as ways to earn a form of virtual interest. Learn more here.

Why Focus on Crypto Donations?

Raising funds for a small organization like SEE Turtles can be challenging when competing with big conservation organizations. But in the crypto philanthropy world, the size of the organization is not as important as its impact and openness to accept crypto donations. Many organizations remain skeptical about this area but ones like SEE Turtles that are embracing it can raise funds that would not be possible to do from individuals, corporations, and foundations. We see this area as a way to quickly scale up our organization and dramatically increase the support we provide for nesting beaches, plastic projects, and our tortoiseshell campaign.

Isn’t Cryptocurrency Bad For the Climate?

It can be but it depends. Bitcoin has gotten a lot of attention for its outsized carbon footprint due to the amount of energy required to conduct transactions. But many currencies, projects, and NFTs are based on different systems (known as “blockchains”) that have a fraction of the energy consumption. We share the concern about the energy intensive blockchains, especially because sea turtles are vulnerable to climate change. While we don’t control which blockchains our donors use, we are advocating for reducing energy use in this area and are seeking out collaborators that focus on blockchains that use a small fraction of the energy of Bitcoin and actively work to offset remaining emissions. Learn more about our current and upcoming partners below. The NFT we are launching with Andrew will be on Solana, which uses a fraction of the energy of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Is This Financial Advice?

Definitely not. We’re not financial advisors and none of the information here should be taken as advice on investing. We simply want to let everyone know what projects out there are supporting our work but we have not evaluated any of their offerings in terms of long-term profitability. Please check with your own financial advisor to learn about what investments make sense for you.

#GivingTuesday Update

2021 has been a year of recovery and growth after a challenging 2020. This year, we launched two new programs, the Sea Turtle Inclusivity Fund and our Sea Turtles and Plastic campaign that will help many communities participate in sea turtle conservation efforts. Our Billion Baby Turtles helped save a record number of hatchlings and Too Rare To Wear is launching a ground-breaking new tool to combat the tortoiseshell trade.

With your support this #GivingTuesday, SEE Turtles can continue saving more hatchlings every year, creating new tools to stop the tortoiseshell trade, get more plastic out of turtle habitats, and support more diverse young conservationists.

How are your funds helping save sea turtles?

This year, our Billion Baby Turtles program has helped save an estimated 1.8 million hatchlings at more than 40 beaches this year including:

• Comunidad Protectora de Tortugas de Osa (Costa Rica): We provided $10,000 in funding for this community-focused project that will save an estimated 350,000 olive ridley and green turtle hatchlings.

• Pronatura Yucatan (Mexico): Our grant of more than $6,000 will help save more than 13,000 hawksbill and green turtle hatchlings at three beaches on the Yucatan Peninsula.

• Turtle Foundation (Indonesia): This year, we provided $12,000 to protect three beaches that protect leatherbacks, green turtles, and olive ridleys. These funds will an estimated more than 45,000 hatchlings.

• Barbados Sea Turtle Project: Our $3,000 grant will help to save an estimated 9,000 hawksbill, green, and leatherback hatchlings.

Too Rare To Wear is finalizing the world’s first phone application that uses AI technology to fight the illegal wildlife trade. This app, called SEE Shell, will allow travelers, law enforcement, and others to quickly and accurately identify these products. Stay tuned for the public launch in early 2022.

Our new Sea Turtles & Plastic program launched with great success, funding our first three projects! These projects in Colombia, Curacao, & Kenya will help get plastic waste out of sea turtle habitat and turn that waste into useful products that benefit local residents and conservation efforts. Support our new project in Mexico and learn more about our funded projects here.

Our Sea Turtle Inclusivity Fund, also launched this year, has provided its first two scholarships for young women from Costa Rica and Brazil to get build their careers in the conservation field.

Photo: Juan Ma Gonzalez

Photo by Lulu Muse

Photo by Brad Nahill

Goals for 2022

Building on this success, SEE Turtles is planning an even bigger year next year. Our goals include:

• We’re going to save more than 3 million hatchlings next year and bring on at least 10 new nesting beaches to the Billion Baby Turtles program

• We’re going to launch the SEE Shell app to help combat the tortoiseshell trade and train law enforcement officials in 4 countries

• We’re going to fund at least 10 plastic projects that will have a real impact on sea turtle habitats around the world and get tons of trash off nesting beaches

• We’re going to help at least 10 students and local community members grow their careers and become leaders in their communities

• Finally, we’re launching new trips to Panama & Costa Rica to provide more volunteer and financial support for conservation and local communities.

We’re expecting an even bigger 2022, can you help us reach our big new goals?

Ways To Give

Between the Jungle and the Turtles

By Luna Vieira

Working with sea turtles has always been a dream for me. And choosing biology as a profession was no surprise since I have grown up on the beach, but starting to work with these animals was not easy at all. Working with science in Brazil is a real challenge; of all the projects that work with marine animal conservation, very few can do enough relevant work without funding and support.

So when I was accepted into the Sea Turtle Conservancy's assistantship program and received the Sea Turtle Inclusivity Fund grant I could not contain my joy of finally realizing my dream. I felt that finally, someone believed in my ability to act in favor of the causes I stand for and that from now on I would have more people to share this fight with. For 3 months I worked as a research assistant in Tortuguero, Costa Rica, the second most important nesting site for green turtles in the world, and I can safely say that it was the best experience of my life so far.

I never imagined that my first international experience would be in Latin America, but I was amazed at how similar the cultures are, each one with its peculiarities. From the moment I disembarked in Costa Rica, the kindness of the people, the climate, the landscapes, everything enchanted me. I met the other assistants who would share these three months with me in San Jose and together we left for Tortuguero.

The trip was our first adventure. Access to this Caribbean village is restricted to boats, so after 4 hours on the road, we met Iván, the station manager, who took us on the Roxanna boat for 45 minutes to the base. Upon arrival, we were all in shock. It was much better than we could have imagined. The station was huge, we had several rooms, a library, a laboratory, kitchen (with the best cooks in the world), visitor center, and even a volleyball court! The excitement was so great that I couldn't wait to start the training. In the same week, we were introduced to the patrol protocol and to life in the village, which by the way was one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. We did the theoretical and practical tests to see if we were ready to go out in the field, and soon we started the work.

The first patrols were a little different from what we imagined, long hours of walking, without much visibility because it was a new moon, and without turtles either. It was an atypical season in Tortuguero. The first turtle I found was unfortunately killed by a jaguar, something recurrent there but part of nature. However, after the first few weeks the rhythm started to improve, the turtles began to come out, and we could work more easily.

During this period we had time to see the beauties of Tortuguero. We visited the Cerro (which Archie Carr calls Turtle Mountain in his books), the National Park that cares for the preservation of all the flora and fauna of this region, and we went on the cocoa tour where we learned about the ancestral culture of this fruit and made our own chocolate. On sunny days we went to the beach and stroll through the village. And so our first month went by. We did some nest excavations of leatherback turtles, which was very exciting for me because it was my first contact with the species. Despite the low birth success we had the opportunity to see many babies and even analyze them in the laboratory. But I did not know that the best part was yet to come.

At the beginning of July, during a patrol on the northern part of the beach, we were walking back to the station, without having worked on a single green turtle, and suddenly we found a track. It was quite unusual, a very wide track that made circles. We followed it and under the weak light of the moon, we saw the shadow of the turtle not far from the high tide line. It was huge and my colleague immediately said it was a leatherback. I, in disbelief, said it couldn't be because it wasn't their season anymore.

But the surprise came when we approached her to find a completely dark shell with small white spots. We could not believe that we were standing next to a leatherback turtle! Maybe it was because our training had prepared us for the green turtles or because that animal was so big that it looked like a dinosaur. After the euphoria passed, we started to get ready for work. We were lucky enough to find her digging the egg chamber but since it was very close to the sea, we had to translocate it. So we waited for her to finish the process and then we collected the eggs, applied the tags, took the measurements, and finally watched this beautiful animal taking its course back to the sea. It was magical.

A few weeks later, we received a visit from Dan Evans, in charge of STC's sea turtle tracking program, to start this year's Tour de Turtles. It was an intense two days, with almost no sleep, in which we captured two green turtles and 1 hawksbill to attach satellite transmitters to their shells and understand a little more about their migrations and habits. On the first day, I was on patrol with Gerson, one of the assistants that live in the village, and we found a turtle that was about to lay eggs, so we called the station and they came by boat. We did the normal process of marking the nest and after the rest of the team arrived we were able to collect blood and tissue samples, and capture her to take to the base.

Soon after, the other team that was on patrol in the southern sector also called. It was a success; in a single night we managed to attach two transmitters. And when we were done, in the morning, we released the turtles on the beach. But we were still missing one turtle. This time we were lucky enough to find a hawksbill, which was easier because this species is smaller than the green and would be interesting to follow a hawksbill that nests in Tourtuguero, a place dominated by the greens.

 During our last month, we had the surprise of receiving a notice from the Global Vision International staff, who work more north of the beach, about a loggerhead turtle that had been killed by a jaguar. For those who don't know, 4 species of turtles nests on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, green, leatherback, hawksbill, and loggerhead, but the latter is extremely rare and the last record we had was 12 years ago. So we took the opportunity to make a trip to Jalova and collect the skeleton of this turtle. In August I also had the pleasure to meet Renato, a Brazilian who, like me, worked with STC but ended up creating his own NGO in the country, called Turtle Love (a Billion Baby Turtles partner). He was doing his PhD in Tortuguero National Park collecting ovaries from dead turtles and it was very interesting to be able to help him sometimes, getting to know more about the physiology of my favorite animals, and exchange experiences.

When the new group of assistants arrived at the end of August, the sadness of knowing that our experience was coming to an end also came with them. But we enjoyed it to the fullest and it was great to meet more turtle people. I would like to thank the people of Tortuguero who were so kind and friendly to me, the STC team who welcomed me with open arms and taught me so much, and the SEE Turtles team for giving me opportunity to live this incredible experience that I will carry with me forever.

Tackling Plastic Pollution in Sea Turtle Habitat

Since the launch of SEE Turtles in 2008, we have educated students, travelers, and the general public about how plastic impacts sea turtles and other ocean wildlife. We organize beach cleanups during our trips, work with a number of sponsors who produce recycled plastic products or plastic alternatives, and advocate for plastic policies through our social media. We have also supported a number of efforts to clean plastic up and create new revenue streams from this waste (see below for details).

SEE Turtles is now ready to take on a larger role in the fight to stop plastic pollution in the ocean. Our new Sea Turtles and Plastic campaign will work with turtle conservation organizations, ocean plastic cleanup and recycling organizations, and business sponsors to get plastic out of sea turtle habitat and to create new markets for recycled ocean plastic. We will also step up our advocacy efforts, including taking over management of Travelers Against Plastic and starting a new Sea Turtles and Plastic newsletter that will include tips for reducing plastic waste.

How We Will Help Reduce Plastic In the Ocean

Through our new campaign, we will raise funds for partner organizations to launch plastic reduction programs such as:

• Green Phenix (Curacao): This award-winning innovative social enterprise is helping reduce plastic waste and provide employment on this Dutch Caribbean island. The organization has purchased machinery to recycle plastic waste collected locally into valuable products like face shields and plastic beams and bricks to be used in construction. Green Phenix also organizes beach cleanups around the island to help keep plastic out of sea turtle habitat and provides job training and employment for more than 20 local residents. Curacao is an important area for sea turtles, both juvenile green turtles living in their waters, and green and hawksbill turtles nesting on their beaches.

  How your donation will help reduce plastic pollution:

  • We will fund 50 new beach cleanups around the island over the next year, which we estimate will collect approximately 1,650 lbs of recyclable ocean plastic and more than 7,000 lbs of other waste.

  • Currently their recycling machines can only process single stream materials (those that are separated) but they require additional equipment to be able to turn the waste collected in beach cleanups into new products. These funds will help them purchase an oven and new moulds which will be used to make new products.

  • The new products that Green Phenix makes with this equipment will be sold, with the funds helping to pay for additional beach cleanups, help the organization become self-sustaining, and provide new job opportunities for local residents.

  Learn more about Green Phenix here.

• Research Center for Environmental Management and Development (CIMAD) (Colombia): This nonprofit organization combines conservation with the needs of local communities to protect biodiversity in Colombia. This project aims to tackle sea turtle nesting beach pollution at Pangui community in the Choco Pacific region of Colombia by transforming plastic into handicrafts made by local women. The goal is to reduce habitat degradation due to plastic accumulation along sea turtle nesting grounds while providing a source of economic income to poor families through the sale of recycled manufactured items.

How your donation will help reduce plastic pollution:

• This project will train women in 5 families in the in the rural community of Pangui to recycle plastic bags into handbags, belts, hats, and other products.

• Sales from these products will help earn income in a rural community without many alternatives, an estimated $1,000 or more per family per year.

• This program will help keep plastic off of nesting beaches for turtles laying eggs and for juvenile hawksbills living in the waters of this area.

Learn more about CIMAD here (in Spanish).

• We will also use our social media network, enewsletters, and Travelers Against Plastic to advocate for plastic reduction efforts including policies, corporate pressure, and other outlets. In addition, we will work with businesses to create new products from ocean plastic that will help to fund additional plastic projects.

SEE Turtles Plastic Efforts To Date:

• We provided funding for a Latin American Sea Turtles program in Costa Rica that supported women-led cooperatives to recycle plastic bags into reusable handbags. We provided financial support and sold the bags in our online store and at events.

• In partnership with Turtle Island Restoration Network, we provided funding for the Environment Society of Oman to clean derelict fishing gear (also known as “ghost gear”) washed up on the beaches Masirah Island, one of the most important beaches in the world for loggerhead turtle nesting. The effort removed approximately 90 tons of waste, primarily fishing gear.

• We support efforts to upcycle plastic waste from sea turtle habitats by selling these products in our online store. We’re the first and only US seller of dog leashes made from ghost fishing gear made in Pakistan through our partners at the Olive Ridley Project. We also sell recycled plastic necklaces made by the Sea Monkey Project. See below or click here to purchase those items from our online store.

• Our educational presentations for schools and the public include the threat of plastic pollution and ways people can help reduce this threat. We also have a lesson for schools on sea turtles and plastic as part of our school program and many student groups have conducted recycling fundraisers as part of our Baby Turtle Fundraising Contest. We also hosted a webinar on sea turtles and plastic that you can watch here.

• SEE Turtles was the first Gold Sponsor of Travelers Against Plastic. We’re now co-managing the campaign with Crooked Trails to reduce plastic use in the travel industry.

• Our sea turtle conservation trips reduce plastic by encouraging travelers to bring reusable plastic bottles and offering clean filtered water, as well as organizing beach cleanups on sea turtle nesting beaches.

How you can support efforts to get plastic out of the ocean and turtle nesting beaches:

• Donate to our Sea Turtles & Plastic campaign

• Sign up for our Sea Turtles & Plastic monthly newsletter

• Follow Travelers Against Plastic on social media: Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

• Pick up a new leatherback hatchling shirt or these products from our online store. All profits will support this campaign.

Turtle Travels Part 3: El Jobo, Costa Rica

Heading back to Costa Rica the next day, we traversed the entire diagonal of the country, from the south Caribbean to the northern Pacific side, stopping for a night to soak in the lush (though not exactly jungle) hot springs near Arenal Volcano. This was my first visit to the northern part of the Guanacaste province, a rare thing since I have spent about 2 years of my life here and 15 or so visits to the country.

El Jobo is a small community along the coast, near the border with Nicaragua. Here we were visiting Equipo Tora Carey (ETC), a community organization that is working to study and protect the incredible wildlife of this area. The area around El Jobo is pretty unique for sea turtles, with three species either nesting or living in these waters (or both), (hawksbills, olive ridleys, and both Indo Pacific green turtles and black turtles, a sub-species of green turtles). SEE Turtles has supported the work of ETC since 2019, providing $5,000 in grants which has helped to save an estimated 1,000 hatchlings.

Randall Mora of ETC tagging a green turtle with a volunteer. Photo: Equipo Tora Carey

We met Mathilde, one of the organization’s coordinators, at her home, which doubles as a BnB, hosting visiting volunteers. During our visit, we enjoyed several delicious meals at the home of Kembly Mora, one of ETC’s leaders, and sampled the many activities that travelers can participate in this area. We joined Kembly’s husband Ricardo to search for and catch rays, as part of a research study, spotting a hawksbill along the way. We visited three of the area’s nesting beaches with Randall Mora and though we did not spot any turtles that evening (it was outside of the peak nesting times), we did get to see the impact of the Dreams Las Mareas Resort, one of the country’s largest. This resort in the past had taken steps to reduce some of its impact on the nesting but no longer does, hosting loud parties with bright lights on the beach, to the detriment of the turtles, which have fewer nests here than in the past.

The highlight of the visit was to Bahia Matapalito (a marine management area adjacent to Santa Rosa National Park), a 30 minute boat ride across the Gulf of Santa Elena, to participate in ETC’s in-water program, where turtles are caught in the water to study and release. Along the way, we spotted a mating pair of olive ridleys in the water. Mathilde also educated us about the importance of this bay for humpback whales, where two distinct populations come to mate and calve.[MH1] 

Once across the Gulf, we stopped to drop the nets, which are used to catch the turtles without risking drowning them. It didn’t take long to snare the first turtle, an Indo Pacific green turtle with a gorgeous shell. After that, two more turtles, one black and one Indo Pacific were caught in a remarkably short time. We snorkeled a bit around the small bay in search of other turtles including hawksbills but were not successful. Once we collected the data of these turtles, we returned them to the water and headed back across the bay, right into the oncoming rain.

That evening, when the skies cleared, we headed up the hill above Mathilde’s place, where several new cabins are being constructed that will house our and other future groups. The view from the top was spectacular, seeing across both sides of the Punta Descartes peninsula[MH2]  over both the Santa Elena Gulf and Salinas Bay. This spot is ideal for the parrot research ETC is conducting, counting these chatty and colorful birds as they migrate from the mainland back to their nearby island nesting colony.

Yellow Naped Amazon Parrots. Photo: Equipo Tora Carey

Our two-week journey along Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, down to Panama, and back up to the Pacific wrapped up with a visit to the Rincon de la Vieja volcano, a beautiful and active one an hour drive from El Jobo. We stayed at the Blue River Resort, which has a variety of fun activities for families and guests, including several hot springs pools, a mud bath and natural sauna, and beautifully landscaped gardens. It was the perfect way to end a hectic but fun and productive trip.

Stay tuned for our newest conservation trip to El Jobo, Costa Rica Turtles, Whales, & Rays coming soon!

Plastic Is Killing Sea Turtles

Photo: Neil Osborne

If there is a poster species for the worldwide epidemic of plastic pollution, it’s sea turtles. The mothers swim through islands of plastic on their migrations and crawl through plastic to find their spots to nest on beaches. Nests are impacted by toxic microplastic particles and hatchlings crawl back through macroplastic on their way to the water. They confuse plastic bags and balloons for their favorite food, jellyfish. Straws get stuck in their noses and plastic spoons stuck in their throat. Even a few tiny pieces of plastic can end a small turtle’s life. They get caught in six pack rings and ghost fishing gear. It’s inescapable.

SEE Turtles is launching a new campaign to reduce plastic in sea turtle habitats in ways that support conservation efforts by partner organizations. We are excited to be partnering with Travelers Against Plastic (TAP) to manage this campaign that works with dozens of tour operators around the world. Through TAP and our social media platforms, we will advocate for eliminating single use plastic, both on a global scale and through individual actions. We will also partner with eco-friendly companies to produce and promote products made from ocean plastic.

Travelers Against Plastic is a leader in the effort to eliminate plastic waste in the travel industry. A study by TAP and the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) showed that 60 percent of adventure travel operators, companies who specialize in visiting remote locations and whose livelihoods depend on a clean environment, still use single use plastic bottles on their tours. This translates to nearly 7 million bottles from this industry alone, most of which end up in landfills since many developing countries don’t offer recycling programs. TAP and SEE Turtles are now teaming up to help travel businesses educate their clients about this problem and offering solutions to reduce the need for disposable plastic while traveling.  

As an organization working to protect endangered sea turtles, SEE Turtles was proud to be TAP’s first Gold Sponsor a few years ago. We put an emphasis on reducing as much as possible the use of plastic on our trips by providing clean filtered water for all travelers and encourage them to bring reusable water bottles, as well as doing beach cleanups on turtle nesting beaches around Latin America.

There are many ways that travelers and tourism businesses can help sea turtles by reducing plastic use and cleaning up plastic when they see it:

• Encourage companies to reduce their use of plastic and advocate for policies that reduce the sale of plastic products & advocate for laws that ban plastic products;

• Bring along a reusable water bottle when you travel and if you’re going where tap water isn’t potable, consider bringing along a Steripen, Grayl, or other filter;

• Bring along reusable bags whenever you might be offered a plastic bag, whether that’s the supermarket, farmer’s market, or department store;

• Carry with you reusable cutlery, straws, and toiletry containers for shampoo and other liquids and ask for no straw when you go out to eat;

• Participate in beach cleanup events (here is good link to find one near you) or bring along a bag whenever you visit the beach and clean up any plastic you find;

• Donate to our new Sea Turtles & Plastic Campaign here.

• Purchase a hatchling print or a shirt from our online store; all proceeds will go towards this campaign.

• Sign up for our Sea Turtles & Plastic Monthly Newsletter for regular updates on how to help keep plastic out of sea turtle habitats around the world.

• Support companies who are working to create a market for recycled ocean plastic.

Banner photo: Ben Hicks

A version of this post was previously published on the Travelers Against Plastic blog.

Turtle Travels Part 2: Bocas del Toro, Panama

Heading across the Costa Rica and Panama border at Sixaola, I was stunned at the change since I was last here 20 years ago. This  border area has changed more drastically than any other I’ve visited in the country. The rickety old bridge has been replaced with a bigger (and safer one) and both border towns have grown dramatically. The pandemic has made the border crossing more complicated but once across, we quickly found a ride to meet our Sea Turtle Conservancy colleagues for the short boat ride to Soropta, a leatherback nesting beach along the northern Caribbean coast. The Sea Turtle Conservancy is known for excellent facilities and Soropta was no exception. The rooms, while rustic, had great touches including personal fans and chargers powered by solar panels, along with snacks.

Raul and Xavier showed us around the facilities and updated us on the current leatherback nesting season, which was one of the highest recorded at this beach; more than 1,200 nests! SEE Turtles has supported this work since 2013 through our Billion Baby Turtles program, providing $39,000 in grants, which has helped STC save an estimated 75,000 hatchlings at this beach over the past 9 years. We then walked out to the nesting beach and walked to the rivermouth, where we spotted a beautiful 3 toed sloth enjoying the view. On the way back, we discovered a recently hatched nest with a number of hatchlings making their way to the water (see our recent post about this journey to the ocean).

That evening, we headed out with Raul and Xavier to look for nesting leatherbacks. We quickly found one of the big mommas and got to work collecting data. Sea Turtle Conservancy does not use hatcheries, so we left this one where it laid and hoped that it would be given the chance to hatch like the one we saw that afternoon. We had just one night at Soropta but it was enough to decide to start offering trips there next year to explore this gorgeous area.

The next morning, we took a boat ride to Bocas Town, the main town in this area. On the way, we passed by Isla Pajaro (Bird Island), a small but important island home to many birds including the famous blue-footed boobies and the red-billed tropic bird (the only place in the country this bird can be found). From there we met with Cristina Ordoñez, Investigation Coordinator of the STC, who has helped the organization grow its Panama program for several years. As a true hero of ocean conservation, we gave Cristina a blue marble to thank her for great work (pictured below).

Cristina took us on a tour of the hawksbill nesting beaches that we have supported for the past three years. These beaches are managed by Anne and Peter Meylan with the STC, who are two of the most respected and accomplished turtle conservationists alive. With the support of the Berman Memorial Fund, SEE Turtles has provided just under $20,000 for their work with hawksbills in this region. The recovery of hawksbills in the Bocas del Toro area is a conservation success story; this local work, coupled with the ending of the legal tortoiseshell trade in the mid-90’s, has resulted in a nearly sixfold increase in hawksbill nesting to roughly 1,200 nests per year since 2004 in the Bastimentos Island National Marine Park.

The two main hawksbill nesting areas are on the Zapatilla Cayes, two small islands not far from Bastimentos, within the park boundaries. These spectacular islands are home to a wide variety of coral and fish species and are a popular snorkeling spot for local and international visitors.  We dropped off the STC research assistants who were catching a ride with us to spend several weeks on these isolated islands (we were not at all jealous). We then headed back to Bocas Town where we spent a lovely evening in the quiet town (most of the weekend tourists had left by that point) including a local bar with this sign that resonated with yours truly (a Deadhead sea turtle conservationist). 

Zapatilla Cayes

View from Bocas Town

Stay tuned for our new Panama Leatherbacks and Hawksbills trip, which will have its first departure in 2022!

Photos by Brad Nahill & Lulu Muse

Photo Essay: Journey of a Leatherback Hatchling

In June 2021, SEE Turtles president Brad Nahill visited leatherback nesting beaches in Costa Rica and Panama. This photo essay captures photos from Estacion Las Tortugas and the Latin American Sea Turtles Pacuare Research Station and the Sea Turtle Conservancy Soropta Field Station in northeastern Panama.

Leatherback turtles are one of nature’s most fascinating animals. The largest turtles and one of the largest reptiles on earth, they can reach more than 6 feet long and 800 lbs. They nest from March to June along the Caribbean coast of Central America.

Location: Soropta Beach, Panama (a Sea Turtle Conservancy project).

Photos: Lulu Muse (using red light, which was edited out, no flash photos taken).

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Leatherback hatchlings take around 53 days to hatch from their eggs. Once they do, they will emerge from the nest in a group (called a “boil”) and then head to the water. At the Las Tortugas Research Station, these turtles are watched for safekeeping in a hatchery. Once they hatch, a sample of hatchlings are weighed and measured and then released to the ocean.

Location: Las Tortugas Research Station (Costa Rica)

Photos: Brad Nahill / SEE Turtles

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Leo from Latin American Sea Turtles shares with us information about their Pacuare Beach nesting project and hatchery in Costa Rica.

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Once a hatchling emerges from the nest, it will make its way to the water, using light, sound, and slope of the beach to find its way. This can be a treacherous journey for hatchlings, navigating through beach vegetation, debris, and holes while avoiding predators like birds and crabs.

Location: Soropta Beach, Panama (Sea Turtle Conservancy)

Photos: Brad Nahill / SEE Turtles

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Once a hatchling reaches the water, it has a couple of days of food left from the egg yolk so it can swim without stopping. In the water, the hatchlings need to avoid predators like fish and birds. Where they go from this point is still a mystery, called the “lost years” as researchers are just beginning to be able to track hatchling movements with transmitters.

Location: Soropta Beach, Panama (Sea Turtle Conservancy)

Photos: Brad Nahill / SEE Turtles

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Xavier of the Sea Turtle Conservancy excavates a previously hatched nest to examine how many hatchlings survived.