The Mexican Sea Turtle Revolution

Dear Friends:

We are very excited to share with you the main results of this season:

1.-According to the baseline of the 2018-2019 season, it was possible to increase the protection of nests by 12.67% and the release of baby turtles in 9 community turtle camps: Huatulco Bay, Ventanilla, Colotepec Bar, Bajos de Chila and the camps from Lagunas de Chacahua National Park (Cerro Hermoso, Chacahua Bay, El Azufre, La Tuza). 

2.- To ensure that the night tours will be carried out to do the surveillance of beaches during the nesting of the turtles and thus to reduce the looting of nests on the beaches, mechanical maintenance was carried out at 6 ATVs, this to guarantee the work on field. A scanner was acquired to diagnose possible mechanical failures in ATVs with the intention of preventing mechanical breakdowns, and to reduce long-term maintenance costs. This scanner is available for all ATVs Sea Turtle Camps on the Oaxaca coast and thus be able to contribute to the conservation and protection of sea turtles to a regional level.

Thanks to your support the Sea Turtles Community Camps, have the necessary equipment to carry out the marking of female leatherback turtles (metal markings, PITs and a scanner), which is very important to monitor the population of adult individuals that come to spawn on nesting beaches and to contribute to the national databases of the Laúd  Project.

3.- Within the environmental education activities of the sea turtle program, the campaign “The sea turtles visit us” was carried out which aims to implement workshops in  6 elementary  schools near the nesting beaches where children learn and reflect on the basic biological concepts of sea turtles in the same way they confront the aspects and ways of using seaturtles as a natural resource in their region. The process of training community environmental promoters continued, of which 5 promoters managed to complete and become certified, who throughout the project were carrying out workshops and / or environmental education activities with various themes related to the conservation and protection of the natural resources of the coast of Oaxaca. In total, 680 kids were sensitized with the “sea turtles visit us” workshops and the workshops given by community environmental promoters throughout 6 municipalities.