Sea Turtle Conservation in Times of Covid-19

Dear friends of the Parlama,

Greetings from Guatemala. This is a final report on our microproject Sea Turtle Conservation in Times of Covid-19 (#47561). Like other places around the world we continue dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic. The infection rate in Guatemala has dropped and the government has relaxed restrictions, but we are all now nervously waiting for a second wave. Masks are still mandatory, and large gatherings are prohibited. The economy is not doing well. It’s sad to see single mothers with children waving white flags on the sides of the roads, asking for food.  In such an environment, it makes ARCAS’s work saving the wildlife of Guatemala even more challenging than usual.     

We are in the middle of the sea turtle nesting season, and to date have collected just over 4,000 olive ridley sea turtle eggs which is low for us, we collected about 15,000 at this same time last year. We have also received several stranded, dead sea turtles, and two injured turtles which have recuperated and returned to the ocean. 2020 has been a difficult year for us. The beach was closed for much of July – September, and we couldn’t carry out our egg collection patrols. Also, the Coronavirus pandemic closed down our volunteer and intern program which provides much-needed support to our egg and data-collecting activities.

We just launched a campaign to raise funds to make a push to fill the Hawaii Hatchery before the end of the season in December. If you can help us, please make a donation following this link  https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/rescue-30-000-sea-turtles-in-guatemala/  Also, if you could share this link with friends and family, we’d appreciate it.

Now that we are a 501c3 non-profit organization in the US, we have joined AmazonSmile. If you could help us by choosing ARCAS as your charity, we would appreciate it. Same products, same prices, same service. AmazonSmile donates 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to ARCAS at no extra cost to you.

Thanks very much for your generous support for our sea turtle conservation efforts, especially in these times of crisis.   Please let me know if you have any questions, and please come and visit us when the pandemic is over.  Our first nests hatched out last week and we should have regular hatchings from now until the end of January, but please check with our staff at the Hawaii Park if you want to visit and release hatchlings.

Links:

• ARCAS Website