Turtle Transmitter Recovered

Yesterday was a good day. We recovered the stolen turtle transmitter without police intervention. This, of course, is partly due to the fact that the stolen device was still transmitting its location. Fortunately, though, we also had conflict resolution training and experience on our side. Once our staff explained the transmitter's value for conservation and for sea turtles, the device was returned. Everyone is at peace and we have our $3000 satellite transmitter to affix to Karen again -- or perhaps to another turtle.

EcoLocalizer Reports on Performance-Based Conservation

Picking up Rick Smith's recent piece at National Parks Traveler, EcoLocalizer has posted about our turtle rangers and community-based conservation programs:

Paso Pacífico, a non-profit organization focusing on the Pacific slope of Central America, is helping endangered Hawksbill Turtles in Nicaragua with a compensation-based conservation program based on incentive payments for local people. The financial rewards to locals in exchange for protecting endangered sea turtle nests are making a difference: Rangers have reported that egg poaching is on the decline. And Paso Pacífico plans are to make this program sustainable.

You can see the EcoLocalizer piece here.

Crazy Turtle Update

Believe it or not, someone has stolen the satellite tracking device right off the back of Karen the Hawksbill sea turtle. Our colleagues in Ostional are trying to recover it -- luckily the stolen device is trackable!

Meanwhile, Karen is doing just fine. In fact, she nested last night at one of our beaches. Our rangers protected her and continue to protect her nest.

Ventura County Start Talks Turtles

We got a brief mention in the local paper today!

Ventura group tags rare sea turtle for study
 
"The Ventura-based conservation group Paso Pacifico recently tagged a rare sea turtle off the coast of Nicaragua with a radio transmitter that allows scientists to study the endangered species." 

Endangered Hawksbill turtles tagged

Paso Pacifico is proud to announce that our rangers together with sea turtle scientists from the Proyecto Carey! have measured and tagged two critically endangered Hawksbill turtles.  They were encountered and protected by our rangers on June 30th 2009 near the beach ‘La Flor’, a well known mass nesting olive ridley beach along the country’s southwest coast. These turtles will provide critical conservation information for what is one of the most endangered sea turtle populations on the planet; the hawksbill turtle in the eastern Pacific. The information generated will be used to help guide future research and conservation in the study region.

This huge achievement was made possible thanks to Alex and Ingrid of Proyecto Carey! and to the Eastern Pacific Hawskbill Inititiave,  the Nicaraguan Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA), the Nicaraguan Sea Turtle Network (Red Nica), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the USAID, the US Forest Service International Institute for Tropical Forestry, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
You may follow these turtles here:
http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/index.shtml?project_id=295

Exporting "Rangering" to Nicaragua

Paso Pacifíco board member, Rick Smith, has written a new piece for National Parks Traveler about the Hawksbills we're tracking:

The rangers who discovered the two turtles kept them on the beach for two days, keeping their heads covered with wet towels and occasionally pouring water over their backs, so these unwitting reptilian volunteers could help scientists learn more about their dwindling species.  

During the second day, a turtle expert from a regional program known as Project Hawksbill came and in cooperation with Paso Pacífico and the employees of MARENA (The Ministry of Natural Resources in Nicaragua) affixed a digital transmitter on the shells of the turtles using a special epoxy. So rigged, these transmitters should allow the turtles’ travels to be tracked when they come to the surface to breath during the next year or two.  

This transmitter tagging was no small event. Children were released from school to observe the installation. Officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources were there, as were representatives of the media. It was very emotional when the children applauded when the second turtle returned to the sea after being liberated. I am sure none of them will become turtle egg poachers in the future. 

Ranger Meeting

Rick's piece also describes the turtle ranger program he helped us launch:

Everyone recognized that the real heroes of this event were the rangers who work for Paso Pacífico, a non-profit organization founded in 2005 to focus on restoring and protecting the endangered ecosystems along the Pacific slope of Central America.
...
These rangers patrol unprotected beaches to protect turtle nests from poaching....All were very enthusiastic about what they were doing. They report that the number of egg poachers is slowly declining and that the incentive program is having a positive effect.

Read the whole piece here:
Exporting "Rangering": Working To Help Nicaraguans Safeguard Rare Hawksbill Turtles

Dreaming of Wetland Reserves

Wetland for sale in southern Nicaragua for sale. We hope to buy it to set aside as a community-managed wildlife reserve area for the local people.

If you are interested in contributing to a capital campaign to allow us to require land for biodiversity conservation, please visit our donation page or send an email: wendy(at)pasopacifico.org.

La Conga Reserve

Last week, we visited the new La Conga Reserve in southern Nicaragua with landowner and cattle rancher Pedro Agurcia.

Pictured are Agurcia, his daughter, one of his farmworkers, and Paso Pacifico board member Dr. Rodolfo Dirzo. In the background, you can catch a glimpse of the acreage he set aside for biodiversity conservation.

Kayak Guides

Kayak Guides in Ostional

As the tourism sector grows in Nicaragua, nature tourism has the potential to provide economic benefit to local communities while also supporting conservation efforts.

Paso Pacífico has joined with diverse partners to provide guide training and support business development. Beneficiary groups have included hostels and restaurants, all owned by members of the rural community. Young adults from rural villages have received extensive nature and kayak guide training, and have harnessed these new skills to create their own eco-tour guiding company.

High-tech turtles in the news

Karen heads out to sea

Karen and Brasilia, the two Hawksbill turtles we tagged earlier this month, are getting good press, in part because Hawksbills are more commonly found in the Caribbean than in the Pacific. In fact, Karen is the first Hawksbill ever to be tagged on Nicaragua's Pacific coast.

El Nuevo Diario:

Dos tortugas marinas de la especie Carey, especie muy común en el Caribe, asombraron a un par de científicos extranjeros por haberlas encontrados en aguas del Pacífico. Ellos no dejaron pasar la oportunidad para poder conocer sus rumbos marinos, colocándoles en sus caparazones un transmisor digital.

Así se convirtieron en los dos primeros quelonios en salir de las costas del municipio de San Juan del Sur, portando en sus respectivas conchas el dispositivo que permitirá a los científicos controlar de forma electrónica sus movimientos migratorios y dónde anidan.

A una de las tortugas se le bautizó como “Brasilia”, tal como la llamaron decenas de niños, estudiantes universitarios, personal del Refugio de Vida Silvestre La Flor y miembros de la Organización Paso Pacífico.

"Dos tortugas Carey salen del pais con trasmisor satelital"


La Prensa:

Dos tortugas carey que llegaron a anidar al Refugio de Vida Silvestre La Flor, en San Juan del Sur, entre las 11:00 p.m. del 29 y la madrugada del 30 de junio, tienen ahora un transmisor satelital que permitirá conocer las rutas que por el mar harán estos quelonios en peligro de extinción 

La colocación de estos transmisores satelitales fue hecha por miembros de la Red de Iniciativa Carey del Pacífico Oriental (Icapo), en presencia de estudiantes de primaria de El Ostional, organismos defensores de estas especies como Fauna y Flora Internacional y Paso Pacífico, además de funcionarios del Ministerio del Ambiente y los Recursos Naturales (Marena) Rivas y del Instituto Nicaragüense de Turismo.

"Rastrearan tortugas carey"

The turtles came with the June 29-30 arribada at the La Flor Wildlife Refuge. The satellites were mounted by representatives from ICAPO (the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative). The schoolchildren from Ostional we included in the process helped pick out the turtles' names.

Track Our Turtles!

Our turtle rangers in Nicaragua affixed satellite transmitters to two Hawksbill turtles, Karen and Brasilia.

You can follow their movement here: http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/?project_id=295&dyn=1246546646

First Pacific Hawksbills Tagged in Nicaragua

Schoolchildren from Ostional
named this Hawksbill Brasilia

A huge advancement for Hawksbill research in the eastern Pacific, Karen and Brasilia, are the first Hawksbills ever tagged on Nicaragua's Pacific coast. They will provide great tracking information in this extremely data deficient region.

Stay tuned for information about how to track the turtles!