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Since its launch in 2001, the Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) Turtle Conservation Fund (TCF) has contributed to marine turtle research and conservation projects in the UK and abroad. In the UK, TCF funding has supported surveys for turtles, jellyfish, fishing activity and marine litter from the South west of England up to the west coast of Scotland. Though turtles are rarely sighted, valuable data regarding the environmental factors that may impact on leatherback turtles in UK waters is being generated. The TCF has also supported satellite tracking of the Atlantic migration of nesting leatherback turtles from Grenada.

In the Mediterranean, surveys supported by the TCF have shed light on marine turtle nesting populations in Syria and Lebanon. In Central America the TCF supported development of a draft management strategy, which will guide future turtle conservation work in Nicaragua. In Costa Rica, TCF funding facilitated the Second Annual Student Sea Turtle Symposium and grassroots initiatives to help communities protect nests on the Pacific coast and encourage responsible fisheries practice. In Africa, the TCF supported the establishment of the first Mozambique Marine Turtle Working Group. It has also provided support to research and conservation efforts in Congo and Gabon, as well as a loggerhead satellite tracking project in Cape Verde. In Asia, the TCF has supported vital education and awareness work in Sri Lanka that has taken the turtle conservation message into schools and initiated a programme aimed at improving hatchery management practices. Indian researchers have also been able to continue monitoring turtle nesting beaches in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands and extend their work to previously unsurveyed beaches. TCF funding also supported efforts to provide the training needed to better quantify and monitor the olive ridley arribada in Orissa, India.

Through the TCF, the Marine Conservation Society will continue this effort to contribute to international marine turtle conservation and research. However, there will now only be one annual application round and project applications must be received by the 1st April each year. To download an application form or for more information about the Turtle Conservation Fund, visit <http://www.mcsuk.org> or contact Sue Ranger, Marine Conservation Society, Unit 3 Wolf Business Park, Alton Street, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, HR9 5NB U.K. (E-mail: sue@mcsuk.org).