Sea Turtle Conservancy Background and Overview of Major Programs

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1 Sea Turtle Conservancy Background and Overview of Major Programs Introduction: The Sea Turtle Conservancy (formerly Caribbean Conservation Corporation) is the oldest sea turtle research and conservation organization in the world. The group was founded in Florida in 1959 by Dr. Archie Carr, the man widely recognized around the world as the leading authority on sea turtles. Over the last 50 years, STC s work helped spawn a global movement to protect sea turtles and developed successful models for studying and protecting sea turtles that are now in use around the world. Most importantly, STC, through its many successful projects, has proved that sea turtles can be saved. It takes a great commitment of time, expertise, resolve and funding to achieve lasting results, but sea turtle conservation does work. Through this grant proposal, STC requests general operating support for its core programs and administration. Mission: STC s mission is to protect sea turtles and associated marine wildlife worldwide, with an emphasis on the Southeast U.S. and the Wider Caribbean. To achieve its mission, STC uses research, habitat protection, public education, community outreach, networking and advocacy as its basic tools. The group conducts ongoing programs in Florida, Costa Rica, Panama, Bermuda, El Salvador, Mexico and the Eastern Caribbean. Organizational Goals and Objectives STC focuses its efforts in three major areas: (1) Research and Conservation at critical sea turtle nesting beaches and in-water sites. STC s 50-year-long program at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, is the most successful sea turtle research and recovery project in the world. A similar initiative at Chiriquí Beach, Panama, is utilizing lessons learned at Tortuguero to monitor and protect some of the world s most important nesting colonies of leatherback and hawksbill turtles. The organization also monitors juvenile turtle populations in Bermuda. And in Florida, STC conducts research on the migratory patterns of various species in order to help shape conservation efforts. (2) Public Education initiatives that raise global awareness about sea turtles. STC uses a diversity of print and electronic educational programs and materials to reach broad audiences with accurate, engaging information about sea turtles, threats to their survival and steps everyone can take to help them survive. STC s Tour de Turtles ( online education program is reaching hundreds of thousands of people around the world with a fun, interactive education program based on the satellite-tracked migrations of sea turtles. STC also operates the Barrier Island Center, a beachfront education center located within the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge (Melbourne Beach, FL) the most important nesting beach in North America. (3) Advocacy aimed at improving the survival outlook for sea turtles. STC s policy work includes active involvement in the myriad coastal and marine management policies impacting sea turtles and the habitats upon which they rely. Special focus is given to reducing bycatch of sea turtles in commercial fisheries; mitigating for the impacts of the Gulf oil spill; protecting critical nesting habitat in Florida; and working with governments in developing countries to replace the consumptive use of sea turtles with alternative livelihoods such as ecotourism.

2 Organizational Overview Sea Turtle Conservancy operates extremely efficiently, with very little funding going to overhead and administration. Over 90% of every dollar contributed is applied directly to the organization s research, policy, education and conservation work. STC chose sea turtles as the focus of its conservation efforts in part because these ancient creatures are important indicators of the health of the world s marine and coastal ecosystems. Each sea turtle species plays a unique and critical role in sustaining the health of different marine and coastal habitats. Once abundant throughout tropical and sub-tropical seas, all seven species now face a variety of survival threats. To give these keystone species any chance of recovering, critical nesting beaches and other important marine habitats must be protected from further disturbance, and human activities that inadvertently harm sea turtles must be minimized. STC is accomplishing these goals by implementing a strategic set of research, conservation, education and policy initiatives aimed at the most important locations and issues impacting sea turtles within our geographic focus. STC s primary geographic focus has been the Wider Caribbean and S.E. United States because of the region s unique importance to the world s remaining populations of sea turtles. The colonies of green turtles, loggerheads, hawksbills and leatherbacks that nest from Florida to North Carolina and along the Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica and Panama are the largest in the Western Hemisphere. Populations of juvenile turtles found around Bermuda and in Florida are the most genetically diverse ever documented. In response, STC has weighted its research and conservation efforts toward these critical nesting and developmental areas; however, our policy initiatives include work on both domestic and broad international issues affecting sea turtles. The following sections describe the organization s major programs, which would be supported through a general operating grant. A) Research, Education and Advocacy in the Southeast U.S. The beaches of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas are among the world s most important areas for sea turtle nesting. Each year, some 70-80,000 sea turtle nests are deposited along Florida s coast alone, representing over 90% of all the sea turtle nesting in the continental United States. Unfortunately, U.S. sea turtle populations are threatened by coastal development, marine pollution, artificial light pollution and interactions with commercial fishing fleets. To address the many threats facing sea turtles and their habitats in the Southeast U.S., STC works closely with local communities, state and local agencies, the media, local businesses and citizens to advocate for the enactment and enforcement of policies that protect sea turtles and their nesting beaches. The beaches of Brevard and Indian River, Florida, are especially unique hosting nearly 40% of all the nesting in the United States. In the late 1980s, STC led an effort to have a 20- mile section of Florida beach declared by Congress as a national refuge. The refuge was established in 1990 and bears the name of STC s founder the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge. To this day, STC is intimately involved in research, education and resource management within the Refuge. STC actively advocates for limits to beachfront construction in fragile coastal areas. We actively oppose the construction of coastal armoring, which blocks turtles from reaching suitable nesting habitat and alters the natural functioning of beaches. Whenever beach nourishment

3 projects are planned, STC works with officials to ensure that projects are conducted in the most environmentally-sensitive ways. For example, we discourage these activities during sea turtle nesting season, while making sure the best types of sand and beach design are used. STC s monitoring of coastal management issues is particularly critical right now, as regulatory agencies and beachfront residents in Florida and elsewhere deal with the erosion caused by more frequent storms and rising seas. In addition, a change of political leadership in Florida has made hardfought environmental protections vulnerable to knee-jerk elimination in the name of job growth. Within the Archie Carr Refuge, STC partnered with local government agencies to design and build the Barrier Island Center (BIC). The BIC serves as the only environmental education facility focused on Florida s barrier island resources. STC runs education programs at the Center, which hosts visiting tourists, local residents and up to 50,000 school children each year. One of STC s most significant recent accomplishments was the establishment of Florida s Sea Turtle License Plate, an official vehicle license plate people can voluntarily purchase for an additional fee. STC led the statewide campaign that convinced the Florida Legislature to authorize the new plate. Revenues from the tag now serve as the primary funding source for Florida s Marine Turtle Protection Program. In addition, thirty percent of turtle tag revenues is set aside for a grants program that supports the work of local turtle monitoring groups, coastal counties and research institutions studying marine turtles. The Sea Turtle Grants Program is administered by the STC, which initially receives 30% of the revenue from the turtle tag, and then awards that funding to entities all over the state through a competitive grant process. B) Sea Turtle Education Programs STC is a global resource for accurate and timely information about sea turtles and their habitats. The organization provides numerous forms of print and electronic educational resources, and we conduct regular public presentations, media interviews, and special events aimed at raising awareness about sea turtles. Each year, STC conducts the Tour de Turtles A Sea Turtle Migration Marathon, an exciting twist to our online educational programming. Up to 15 sea turtles are released almost simultaneously at different nesting sites in Florida and the Caribbean. Each turtle is equipped with a satellite transmitter allowing STC to track location and distance traveled. While the tracking itself is an important component of STC s research into these animals life histories, the data also is used by STC to simulate a race to determine which turtles can complete the longest migration during the three-month period of the event. In addition to the race This image shows the satellite tracked migrations of sea turtles followed during the Tour de Turtles as they traveled from sites in Panama and the Caribbean up the eastern coast of the United States to New England, and

4 itself, each turtle competes symbolically to raise awareness about a different cause related to sea turtle conservation (such as the problem of marine debris or the impacts of commercial fishing). The entire event takes place online at a fantastic, interactive website built specifically for this program ( The popularity of the Tour de Turtles has grown each of the last five years, and the sixth annual Tour de Turtles will launch in summer Thousands of people show up at our event launch sites to cheer on their favorite turtles, and tens of thousands of new visitors will logon to the Tour de Turtles website to track the race s progress and learn about sea turtle conservation issues. Through Tour de Turtles, STC has learned a great deal about the migratory patterns of sea turtles, and has tracked turtles from the beaches of Florida and the Caribbean that have traveled up the eastern coast to New England, and beyond. C) Research and Conservation in Costa Rica STC conducts a world-renowned sea turtle monitoring and protection program at Tortuguero, Costa Rica nesting site of the largest remaining population of green turtles in the Western Hemisphere. The work takes place out of STC s Biological Field Station, a modern research station situated on the beach adjacent to the 30,000 hectare Tortuguero National Park. The Tortuguero program is the longest of its kind in the world. When STC first began working with the community of Tortuguero in the 1950s, turtles were being harvested at an alarming rate. Over the years, STC and the community have replaced the unsustainable harvest of turtles with an economy based on sustainable ecotourism. To encourage responsible practices, STC conducts training courses for tour guides, teaching them proper techniques for observing nesting turtles with minimal impact. In addition to deterring poaching on the beach through the presence of its own turtle monitors, STC provides support to Tortuguero National Park to help ensure adequate personnel and equipment are available to enforce anti-poaching laws. STC recruits and trains dozens of Research Assistants annually to help carry out the Tortuguero program. We specifically recruit trainees from Latin American countries that have sea turtle populations, training them in One of STC s volunteer Research Assistants measures a nesting green turtle. sea turtle monitoring techniques as well as conservation tactics. Many former STC research assistants return to their own countries to begin sea turtle monitoring programs. Over the last 50 years, STC s sustained Tortuguero program has become a global success story. Since 1970, STC has documented a 600% increase in green turtle nesting at Tortuguero making this population the largest colony in the Western Hemisphere. In fact, during the 2010 nesting season we documented the highest level of green turtle nesting since Dr. Archie Carr first began monitoring the site in the mid-1950s. D) Conservation in Partnership with Indigenous Communities in Panama In 2003, STC launched a new research and protection program at Chiriquí Beach and adjacent nesting sites in Panama one of the most important nesting regions for endangered leatherbacks and hawksbills in the world. This program has the potential to do for these species what the Tortuguero program has done for green turtles. The program

5 is modeled after the Tortuguero project; however, in this case STC is employing members of the indigenous Ngöbe-Buglé community to carry out much of the turtle monitoring work. STC also is helping the community develop sustainable, resource-based ecotourism in an effort to replace turtle harvesting as a major source of local income. As part of their training, Ngöbe leaders are brought annually to the STC station in Costa Rica to experience first-hand how protecting sea turtles can be more valuable to a community than harvesting turtles. Chiriquí Beach alone now averages about 6,000 leatherback nests per year making the beach one four largest remaining nesting sites for leatherbacks in the world. And our work is already producing a measurable increase in hawksbill nesting in the region, with improved nest survivorship and reduced illegal turtle fishing. STC is very optimistic that this sustained project will help recover these two critically endangered turtle species in this region of Panama Number of leatherback nests Number of leatherback nests Year Figure 1. Leatherback nesting trend, Year Figure 2. Hawksbill nesting trend, E) Reducing Hatchling Mortality in Florida to Mitigate for Losses Caused by BP Oil Spill Untold numbers of sea turtles in the Gulf died during the height of the oil spill crisis, and for years to come habitat degradation caused by the spill will negatively affect sea turtles and their prey species. Decades of progress in recovering sea turtles in this part of the world will continue to be undermined by the lingering impacts of the spill. In order to keep sea turtles on the road to recovery, urgent action is needed to mitigate for the harm caused by the spill. STC is working aggressively to reduce other significant causes of sea turtle mortality in Florida in order to make up for losses that have and will continue to occur in the Gulf. This goal is being accomplished through the three primary tasks described below: 1. Reducing disorientations caused by artificial lighting on private beachfront properties. Improperly managed beachfront lighting attracts sea turtle hatchlings when they emerge from their nests often leading them toward their deaths. In fact, lighting disorientation is one of the leading causes of sea turtle mortality in Florida. STC will identify private properties with

6 problem lights and work with owners to install shielded light fixtures and replace white light bulbs with low wattage LED bulbs that emit light in the optimal sea turtle-friendly wavelength. Using these tactics, sea turtles will be able to use their natural sea finding abilities to safely reach the ocean, and the lighting needs of people will be met. STC has been completing lighting retrofits in Florida since 2010 (see photos of the successful results below). The organization will continue this work by assisting additional property owners to design and install lighting fixtures that address the specific problems at each location. The initial focus is on counties where disorientations are highest, including Broward, Palm Beach, Martin and Brevard Counties on the east coast. Gulf coast counties and the Panhandle also will be targeted. Following the installation of new lights on each property, STC will conduct a post-installation inspection and carefully monitor nesting data from each site. Based on previous results, we anticipate that thousands of sea turtle hatchlings will be saved each year as a direct result of the lighting improvements we are making. Nearly every nest deposited in front of the Boca Mar Condominium in Boca Raton, FL, was disoriented by lights. STC worked with the property to shield lights and install amber LED bulbs. The before (left) and after (right) photos show how lighting has improved dramatically for sea turtles at this property. 2. Reducing statewide incidences of predation through animal control programs that focus on problem animals. Predation of turtle eggs and hatchlings waiting to emerge from their nests is the single largest source of sea turtle mortality in Florida. On some beaches, nearly 100% of nests are predated by raccoons and other animals. In the wake of the oil spill, this level of hatchling mortality must be reduced in order to mitigate for the high levels of loss in the Gulf. STC will work with partners at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Florida Park Service to reduce predation of nests where there are documented high levels of predation. This will be accomplished through the use of live trapping methods, nest shielding and animal relocation. Unnaturally high raccoon and feral hog predation will be targeted. STC will coordinate efforts with Florida s state park managers, county resource Raccoons wait to catch sea turtle eggs literally as female turtles are depositing them into their nests on some Florida beaches.

7 managers, the Wildlife Conservation Commission, turtle researchers, and statewide sea turtle permit holders to identify predation hot spots. Successful long-term predation control also relies on public education to build support for control and also to change personal behaviors that contribute to the high numbers of predators in specific areas. Raccoons are often attracted to beachfront regions because of readily available food sources in uncovered or improperly secured garbage containers. STC will distribute public education materials providing basic information to help coastal residents understand what they can do to help alleviate the predation problem. F) In-Water Research and Conservation in Bermuda First begun by STC in the 1960s, the Bermuda Turtle Program involves the study of juvenile green turtles in Bermudian waters as they grow and mature in an area that serves as a developmental for immature green turtles. This program, which is not conducted jointly with the Bermuda Aquarium, provides valuable data on population health, growth rates and migration. The information gleaned in Bermuda is instrumental in getting countries throughout the Atlantic and Caribbean to coordinate sea turtle conservation efforts, since these species truly are a shared resource. In addition to the core research and conservation activities undertaken in Bermuda, STC and its project partners coordinate an annual field research training program that is teaching upcoming graduate-level biologists from around the world important in-water research techniques. Conclusion Over the last half century, STC has discovered much about what is known about the biology and life history of sea turtles. In the process, we have trained generations of sea turtle biologists and spawned a global movement toward sea turtle conservation. STC s sustained research and conservation programs have been credited with saving the Atlantic green turtle from near extinction and improving the survival outlook for many other turtle populations. Despite the global advances in marine turtle conservation, threats to the survival of these species are on the rise. It is increasingly important that STC remain engaged in the diversity of issues affecting sea turtles and their habitats. STC is supported primarily from the contributions of individuals, foundations and private businesses and is currently in need of general operating support to continue successful research, education and conservation work. For more information, please contact: David Godfrey Executive Director Sea Turtle Conservancy david@conserveturtles.org