Help Protect Endangered Sea Turtles in Curacao

The period January-March is called low season within our organization. There is no nesting activity. That doesn't mean nothing happens, we had a fundraising rock concert and less happy news: we had quite some rescues to do. Now preparations for the nesting season 2024 start with volunteer trainings. Our field coordinator attended the WIDECAST conference in Costa Rica.

Fundraising event: Turtle Rock

We organized a rock concert to raise money for our organization. 3 bands played, visitors could buy raffle tickets and we auctioned art and other pieces. Of course we also told the audience about our organization and our work. The whole evening was both great fun and we raised a substantial amount of money to help more turtles around Curacao.

Rescues

We get a ot of reports on turtles with a fish hook in their mouth or flipper. The good news is that people know to report to us and we are able to help the turtles quickly. Most of the times we can find the turtle and remove the hook at the beach ourselves. Sometimes we bring the turtle to the vet. In most cases the turtle can be released the same day. The bad news is it happens over and over again. 

WIDECAST conference

The Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WIDECAST) organized their annual meeting in Costa Rica this month. Our field coordinator Ard Vreugdenhil attended and presented about Fibropapillomatosis (FP) around Curacao. We value these annual meetings to learn from each other, align on best practices and tighten collaboration. 

Start of the new nesting season

Now the focus is full on the coming nesting season. All new and existing volunteers will attend training sessions the coming time. They will learn all about the turtle species around Curacao, turtle handling, nest monitoring, rescues and crowd control. This year in addition to the basic training we add specialty trainings in hand catching, triangulation and nest activity recognition.

Links:

• WIDECAST website
• STCC website