|
More than 35,000 endangered sea turtles are slaughtered
each year in Baja's waters by poachers and through fisheries
by-catch. This is the highest sea turtle mortality trend
on record.
Conservation in Baja California is vital to the recovery
of the Pacific's endangered sea turtle population.
Through the recruitment of local community members for research
and monitoring projects, and local education campaigns, SeaWatch's
partner, WiLDCOAST is leading a successful campaign to ensure
that the sea turtle population has a chance to recover.
WiLDCOAST has also initated a "Don't Eat Sea Turtle" media
campaign in Mexico and the United States border region to
combat the illegal trade in endangered sea turtle meat.
Click
here to Find Out more about the danger's facing Mexico's
turtles.
Also, see this article from the New York Times about
the decline of the Pacific turtle.
LINKS
Turtle Tracking
Over
time a turtle named "Baja" will be tracked as she
leaves her nesting beach in southern Mexico (Michoacan)...and
hopefully shows us the way to her preferred feeding areas (e.g.
Baja California).
So far "Baja" has stayed in Michoacan
and has nested one more time since her transmitter was attached
in mid December...keep an eye out for her to move out!
This
project is conducted in partnership with seaturtle.org, The
Marine Turtle Research Group (University of Exeter), University
of Michoacan, Grupo Tortuguero and WiLDCOAST.
|
