Save the Sea Turtles

Dear Friends,

I am thrilled to share that your support for our efforts to save sea turtles is making a big difference! The last several months were nesting season and so there has been a lot of action in both El Salvador and Nicaragua to protect sea turtles. Our investEGGator technology continues to evolve and improve and is now being deployed in a Caribbean country to help stop the illegal trade of sea turtles. 

Here is some of the good news:

• With your help, we have been able to protect 63 sea turtle nests and so an estimated 3653 sea turtles have entered their life at sea, including 384 critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles hatched from two nests.  

• Our partner Rancho Santana in Nicarauga reports over 10,000 baby sea turtles released this year. We visit this resort quarterly to provide technical assistance to their conservation efforts. 

• The InvestEGGAtor has been updated with a new transmitter that fits snuggly into the 3-D printed encasement. This new version has been delivered to an island in the Caribbean where a conservation group is deploying it to tracking the illegal sea turtle across the island. 

• We are collaborating with an engineering student from Princeton University to improve the efficiency of production for the investEGGator so that we can increase its production and get this technology into the hands of more conservation groups.  

I would like to make an appeal to you. We are now entering the dry season months when sea turtle nesting activity decreases, with the exception of the leatherback sea turtle. This ocean giant is quite literally on the brink of extinction with scientists predicting a population collapse in the near future. We are seeing this happen before our eyes, becuase the three leatherback nests we producted in Nicaragua and El Salvador last season all ended up with with infertile eggs. They failed because there are not enough male leatherbacks in the ocean to pair up with a mother turtle. This means that EVERY SINGLE LEATHERBACK SEA TURTLE NEST is critical to the survival of the species. Will you help us to continue our efforts to save sea turtles, and especially leatherback nests this winter, by making a #GivingTuesday donation today?

With gratitude for your past support and with hope that we can continue to help these magnificent creatures in the Pacific Ocean. 

Sincerely,

Sarah Otterstrom

Executive Director