Marine Turtle Monitoring and Community Conservation Program

Nesting turtles and their freshly-laid eggs face a serious threat of poaching and increasing coastal development on an unprotected and previously unstudied beach located within the Barra del Colorade Wildlife Refuge. Our program responds to an urgent need for the protection of marine turtles whose conservation status is endangered or critically endangered.

COTERC strives to:
- Improve the understanding of leatherback, green, loggerhead and hawksbill marine turtle abundance and nesting patterns
- Increase awareness and improved conservation education amongst local residents and businesses about human disturbance, threats to sea turtle survival and stewardship actions
- Reduce poaching and human-induced mortality and disturbance, and
- Establish cooperative and collaborative networks with other organizations to share monitoring results and conservation success stories.

COTERC is currently seeking volunteers at our Biological Research Station in Costa Rica for:
- Annual studies on the status and trends of nesting turtles and threats
- Graduate studies examining alternative livelihoods for poachers and ways to integrate with marine turtle conservation efforts

posted 16-Dec-2009 11:53:13 AM