Project Update: July 2006

During the month of July we visited the southern part of Baja California Sur.
This includes the following sites: Todos Santos, Cabo San Lucas, San José del Cabo and Cabo Pulmo. Very few carapaces have been discovered there.

The four sites are known as Olive-Ridely turtle nesting site. Different NGO are working in the area to protect nests and eggs from poachers.

In Todos Santos we monitored the beach of Agua Verde (10 km length) jointly with members of the Grupo Tortuguero of Pescadero.

In Cabo San Lucas we monitored a small beach called San Cristobal (about 4km
long) in collaboration with ASUPMATOMA. ASUPMATOMA volunteers usually monitor two beaches, the second one was impossible to monitor as it still is inaccessible due to the winter tide. ASUPMATOMA Principal Investigator and volunteers have been trained to conduct sea turtle mortality census and will help us collecting data. We will visit them every two months and share data.

In San José del Cabo we did not monitor any beaches, according to people from the Don Manuel Orantes sea turtle Camp, who have been working in the region for about 10 years, pick of sea turtle mortality is in August-September in correspondence with the nesting season pick.

In Cabo Pulmo, as expected, we did not find any carapaces. Cabo Pulmo is a marine protected area and fishery is strictly surveyed. Almost all the people living in Cabo Pulmo are involved in marine turtle protection. We also assisted to the finding of the first Olive-Ridley nest of the season.

Thanks to a scholarship offered by the Society for Conservation GIS, a member of Proyecto Carapacho team could join an intensive GIS course to improve her skills on GIS analysis and techniques.