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Here, Louise Brooks, a researcher, releases a green turtle back into
the Pacific Ocean after tagging it for Grupo Tortuguero.
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Eight years ago, an over fishing crisis threatened the
primary source of income for several remote Mexican villages along the
coast of Baja California Sur. The situation presented Wallace J. Nichols,
a wildlife and biology doctoral student doing research in the area, with
the opportunity to involve fishermen in conservation efforts that could
prevent over fishing and, in the process, help save endangered sea
turtles.
Today, Grupo Tortuguero, as the program has become known,
tracks the migratory and breeding patterns of 868 turtles from 19 sites in
California, Japan, Mexico, and South America. It is organized as part of
Pro Peninsula, a San Diego charity.
Lindsey Peavey, outreach and development coordinator at
Pro Peninsula, says the group estimates that 35,000 sea turtles are killed
annually in the waters off Baja California due to poaching or accidental
deaths in fishing nets. Meat from the turtles, which are endangered and
illegal to kill for consumption, is a delicacy in the region.
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May 23, 2005 - Happy World Turtle Day!
"It's a big cultural change for these communities to see
the turtles as something to save instead of something to consume," Ms.
Peavey says.
One selling point is that the turtles can be an attraction
for tourists. While whale watching has historically been the largest
ecotourism draw in the area, Grupo Tortuguero's turtle camps and "beach
walks" allow tourists to see turtles up close and help the conservation
effort by having them walk the shoreline at night to look for and mark
turtle nesting sites.
The program also involves children in its conservation
efforts. In Mexico, fishermen name each tagged and monitored turtle after
a child in their village. And at 17 schools in San Diego, Grupo Tortuguero
runs programs to teach biology and organizes field trips to the monitoring
sites.
Grupo Tortuguero's annual budget of $195,000 comes
primarily from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the National
Marine Fisheries Service, and the Norcross Wildlife Foundation, in New
York, as well as from the Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la
Naturaleza and Semarnat, an environmental-protection agency in Mexico. The
group employs a coordinator to manage its 76 volunteers, as well as to
ensure that the equipment, methods, and permits are all current. A
scientist has also recently been added to the staff. |
