MTN 102:14-15 Report on the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Sea Turtle Conservation Network of the Californias

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Report on the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Sea Turtle Conservation Network of the Californias

Zoe Rappoport & Wallace J. Nichols
WiLDCOAST International Conservation Team, Post Office Box 324, Davenport, California, 95017 USA (E-mail: zrappoport@wildcoast.net)

The 5th Annual meeting of the Grupo Tortuguero de las Californias (Sea Turtle Conservation Network of the Californias) was held in Loreto, B.C.S., Mexico from January 24-26, 2003. The network is comprised of a growing sea turtle conservation constituency including fishermen, their families, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, scientists, students, and interested community members. The theme of this year's meeting was "Saving Sea Turtles, One Person at a Time".

Attendance has grown from 45 people in 1999 to more than 240 this year, with sea turtle interests represented from the United States, Mexico, Nicaragua, Japan, Guatemala, Peru, and New Zealand. Participants attended multi-media presentations on turtle health, nesting, sea turtle reserves, and protection. Network members from the entire Baja California peninsula shared community reports on the progress of their monitoring and protection efforts. Smaller groups attended workshops on communicating conservation messages to the media, ecotourism, monitoring techniques, and analyzing turtle health.

This year's highlights included an original sea turtle protection song performed by the Mulege student club and a viewing of new marine protection video footage. Also in attendance was Francisco "Gordo" Fischer (see front cover), a former sea turtle poacher responsible for killing as many as 2,000 turtles a year to supply the black market demand. After serving jail time for poaching, Francisco has joined the Grupo Tortuguero's international campaign to halt the slaughter of turtles, and he is speaking out publicly about his experiences.

The Fourth Annual Premio Orantes, given to an individual or group who has contributed greatly to sea turtle recovery in the region, was awarded to the community of Punta Abreojs, BCS, for their efforts to curb sea turtle consumption in their community and halt turtle hunting in their coastal waters.

The 2003 meeting also included the region's first workshop on bycatch reduction, led by Raquel Briseño. Topics included identifying hotspots of bycatch, modifying fishing gear, and the effects of bycatch on turtle survival.

The meeting met its goal of providing a regional forum for sharing information, working through difficult situations, making friends and partners, learning new techniques, and comparing experiences all part of the community-based effort to recover endangered sea turtles along the coast of the Californias.

The Sixth Annual Meeting of the Grupo Tortuguero de las Californias will be held in Los Cabos, BCS, Mexico on 23-25th of January 2004 (location to be arranged). Please contact: Zoe Rappoport: <zrappoport@wildcoast.net> or Graciela Tiburcio <gtiburcio@hotmail.com> for additional information, or visit <http://baja.seaturtle.org/>.

Acknowledgements: The meeting was made possible with support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, Global Green Grant Fund, GEA, NFWF, Ocean Planet Research, Pronatura, SEMARNAT, UABCS, UNAM-Mazatlan, IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group, Underwater Images Competition, Hotel Camino Real, and Budget-Loreto.