Sea Turtle Conservancy

Sea Turtle Conservancy

This former TreadRight project supported The Sea Turtle Conservancy, a not-for-profit membership organization, which is the oldest and most accomplished sea turtle organization in the world.

Objective

Founded in 1959, the Sea Turtle Conservancy has been instrumental in saving the Caribbean green turtles from immediate extinction. While the organization initially began its work in Tortuguero in Costa Rica, it has since expanded its conservation efforts throughout Central America and the wider Caribbean.

Sea turtles are known to journey the world and have been doing so for millions of years, however, due to the ever growing presence of humans in their natural habitats, these incredible creatures are struggling to survive. The threats facing sea turtles are numerous and, for the most part, human created. Sea Turtle Conservancy works with the local community in Tortuguero to communicate and demonstrate the value of living sea turtles over turtle meat and eggs.

Impact

TreadRight and Contiki Cares sponsored turtles in the annual Tour de Turtles race, promoting sea turtle conservation efforts and raising awareness about the many threats sea turtle populations face. The support also funded the purchase of satellite transmitters, which are attached to a sea turtle throughout the race and sends important research data to the Sea Turtle Conservancy.

In 2014, Contiki and TreadRight sponsored and named Esperanza, a green sea turtle. TreadRight and Contiki also sponsored the research of a member of the Sea Turtle Conservancy’s Research Assistantship Program.

In 2015, Contiki and TreadRight sponsored Tiki, a hawksbill sea turtle who swam to raise awareness about the threat poaching poses to sea turtles and their eggs. Tiki is an adult female sea turtle who was released on July 2, 2015 with a satelite transmitter after she nested on Tortuguero Beach, Costa Rica.

TreadRight also celebrated Earth Month 2014 with Contiki Cares by sending 12 storytellers to Costa Rica, accompanied by TreadRight Ambassador Céline Cousteau, to the Sea Turtle Conservancy site in Tortuguero to document their experiences through photography, video and the written word.

Additionally, each Contiki traveller visiting Costa Rica as part of the Costa Rica Unplugged Tour had the opportunity to receive an exclusive e-doption of the Contiki and TreadRight sponsored turtle. Once they e-dopted the turtle, they were able to go online and track their turtle, watching her progress throughout the race, while also learning about the dangerous threat of wildlife crime to sea turtles.

UN GLOBAL GOALS

This project sponsored many educational initiatives conducted by the Sea Turtle Conservancy to raise awareness of the threats to sea turtles. Through our partnership, we are taking swift and urgent action to protect and prevent the extinction of sea turtles.

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