November 2023: Sea Turtles for the Win!

An adult olive ridley sea turtle at the surface of the sea. Photo by Esmée van der Ven.

Your gift helped sea turtles thrive. Thank you!

CONSERVATION IN ACTION

Ready for sea turtle updates? Your support for our sea turtle conservation efforts made a big difference!

This year, donors like you helped our rangers protect 63 sea turtle nests. An estimated 3,653 sea turtles have entered their ocean thanks to your support. Most of these nests held endangered Galapagos green turtles.
Donors like you were also able to help us protect two critically endangered hawksbill nests, resulting in 384 baby hawksbills entering the sea and representing hope for the species.
More exciting news this year is that your support enabled the construction of a sea turtle nursery in eastern El Salvador with our local partner Bongo Experience. Participants on our first donor trip had the chance to release olive ridley turtles that hatched from some of the first nests. We will continue to improve the management of this nursery.

Ranger Jairo Coronado holds a basket of green sea turtles to the sand as they crawl out. Photo by Esmée van der Ven.

A baby green sea turtle enters the sea! Photo by Esmée van der Ven.

Your donations also made a difference through our community partners. Each quarter, with your support, Paso Pacífico rangers provide technical assistance to our partners at Rancho Santana to help their conservation efforts. The resort has released over 10,000 baby sea turtles just this year!
Earlier this year, you helped us protect two leatherback sea turtle nests with FUNZEL. Over the coming months, we hope to protect more nests from this turtle, including with partners in El Salvador. This species is at extreme risk of going extinct in the Pacific Ocean in the near future, and so each nest is especially critical.

We are grateful to the organizations who stand with you to help save sea turtles These include an anonymous foundation and Save the Turtles, a grassroots nonprofit that raises funds to support sea turtle conservation. Our female turtle rangers receive sustaining funds from the IUCN-Netherlands.

Each and every person who donated helped provide opportunities for people and a shot at survival for critically endangered sea turtles. THANK YOU!

Thank you for loving sea turtles!

Miladys Rodriguez plants a tree. Photo by Jarinton Garcia.

TEAM MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

As a ranger and teacher, Miladys Rodríguez unites her business administration training and talent for crafts with her love of the natural world. She enjoys working with Junior Rangers wherever curiosity takes them, from lake shores and tropical forests to a beach with baby sea turtles. Miladys' favorite animal is the cinnamon hummingbird (Amazilia rutila).

Beyond her professional endeavors, Miladys finds joy in her family. Together with her husband, Jarinton García, and her father-in-law José Felipe García, who are also rangers, she plays with her young daughter and instills in her a profound respect for nature.

Thank you for supporting Miladys and her work!

Cleanup participants show off their bags. Photo by SER.

IN GRATITUDE

This fall, we celebrated the International Coastal Cleanup for the fifteenth year! This worldwide event is supported by the Ocean Conservancy. Together with the efforts of 359 volunteers and Paso Pacífico team members, your help enabled us to remove 1.8 tons of trash from beaches and rivers in Nicaragua.

We would like to thank all our incredible partners in Nicaragua who made this possible. Over 8 local organizations and companies pitched in to help, including SER Nicaragua, which brought in over 200 volunteers. These cleanups took place between September and November, and were also supported by SEETurtles.org and Dots.Eco. Thank you to you all for helping clean the coasts and waterways, making them safer for people and wildlife.

¡Gracias!

IN THE NEWS

Tomorrow is #TurtleTuesday, when we often celebrate sea turtles on social media. Thank you for celebrating turtles with us.

This #TurtleTuesday falls on Giving Tuesday, and so we are making it easy for you to support sea turtles by making a gift! Just $35 can SAVE a nest of baby sea turtles. 🌊🐢

Donate HERE for #GivingTuesday. A match will be active on Tuesday, November 28th, from midnight to midnight Eastern time (terms and conditions apply). Please make your gift for sea turtles.

Make Your Gift!

A turtle ranger reaches under a mother sea turtle to grab her eggs for protection. It's night and the light is red to not startle the turtle. Photo by Matt Dolkas.

PARTNERS MAKE IT POSSIBLE

The InvestEGGator has been updated with a new transmitter that fits snugly into its 3D-printed case. A Caribbean conservation group is now deploying it to track the illegal sea turtle poachers across their island.

We are also excited to share that we are collaborating with an engineering student from Princeton University to improve the production efficiency for the InvestEGGator in order to get this technology into the hands of more conservation groups and save more sea turtles. All this was made possible thanks to support from donors like you!

Thank you for your support!

Click here for a #GivingTuesday match!

INSTAGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Thank you to all the photographers who contributed photos used in this e-newsletter. These include but are not limited to SER, Esmée van der Ven, Tom Vaughn, Matt Dolkas, Hal Brindley/Travel for Wildlife, and Paso Pacífico rangers Jairo Coronado, Jarinton García, Yorlin Vargas, and Sarah Otterstrom.