Saving the Sea Turtles

By M.J. Prest

Photograph by David Barron/Oxygen Group

Eight years ago, an overfishing 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 overfishing 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.

“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.

Here, Louise Brooks, a researcher, releases a green turtle back into the Pacific Ocean after tagging it for Grupo Tortuguero.