Maria Carolina Monterrosa Salinas

Nesting Assessment of Four Endangered Species of Sea Turtles

Leatherback Hatchlings coming up.

First female tagged in TNNP.

Measuring Leatherback hatchlings.

Female tagged in TNNP.

Town/Region	Country	Categories	Date
Tayrona National Park	Colombia	Biodiversity, Central and Latin America	12 Jul 2007

The project will be conducted within an area that has been considered home for a great biodiversity and thus declared protected due to its fragility and vulnerability. Even more, the species under study are listed as endangered. So, it is essential to realize many unknown aspects about its biology and reproductive patterns under natural conditions in order to obtain valuable information that will be used for its conservation and management involving local communities. Consequently, this project will contribute with precise and trustworthy information combining research and active participation for conservation and management of sea turtles.

The project objectives are:

• To evaluate nesting activity of marine turtles and their reproductive habitats.

• To tag and register morphometric measurements and other biological data of each individual of the nesting population.

• To relocate and supervise jeopardize nests and determine hatching success, incubation time and factors that affect mortality and emergency of hatchlings.

• To conduct workshops for the long-term assessment and conservation management of nesting sea turtles.

• To promote conservation of endangered species and their habitats through public awareness campaigns and educational activities.

• To identify and enumerate the current and potential threats at Tayrona’s nesting beaches and nearby waters.

For more information contact colombiamarina@yahoo.es

Project Update: August 2007

During these two months of work (June – July) we have not have a lot of turtles on the beach, it seems to be an atypical year and the nesting females began to came out in march when they use to do it in may , anyway, there have been a lot of work and just two turtles have came out since June, one of them was tagged and with it we began the TAGGING PROGRAM IN TAYRONA NATIONAL NATURAL PARK with a beautiful female, 99,5 cm of Curved Carapace Length, and 85 cm of Curved Carapace Width.

We have emphasized the work in the six nests laid by the turtles during the first months of the year. We had monitored them, determining a hatching success of 31,56 % and a emergency success of 29,37 %. Of these six nests, four of them had been relocated by the National Park Staff without an adequate instruction, being that one of the principal factors affecting the survival of the hatchlings. Regarding this situation, we conduct the First Workshop in Management and Conservation Techniques of Sea Turtles in TNNP, directed to the staff working in sea turtles and the volunteers in the study area.

Other part of the work has been to create conscious in the tourists who visit TNNP about the importance of the conservation of sea turtles, and the appropriate use of light in the nesting beaches, so we have distribute more than five hundred flyers in three different languages (Spanish, English and French) and talk with the people on the beach at night, explaining them our project and the need of their help in order to protect the sea turtles.

Final Report

Read more about the activities undertaken and findings of this project in the final report below.