SEA TURTLE CONSERVANCY

STC's long-term goal is to protect all species of sea turtles and their habitats so that they can survive, thrive and fulfill their ecological roles in the marine and coastal environment.

(1) Advocacy aimed at improving the survival outlook for sea turtles. STC’s policy work includes active involvement in the myriad coastal and marine management policies impacting sea turtles and the habitats upon which they rely. Special focus is given to improving beach and coastal management in areas where sea turtles nest and forage; reducing bycatch of sea turtles in commercial fisheries; mitigating for the impacts of the Gulf oil spill; and working with governments around the world to protect sea turtle habitat and replace the consumptive use of sea turtles with alternative livelihoods such as ecotourism.

(2) Public Education initiatives that raise global awareness about sea turtles. STC uses a diversity of print and electronic educational programs and materials to reach broad audiences with accurate, engaging information about sea turtles, threats to their survival and steps everyone can take to help them survive. STC’s Tour de Turtles online education program reaches hundreds of thousands of people around the world with a fun, interactive education program based on the satellite-tracked migrations of sea turtles. STC also operates the Barrier Island Center in Florida and the Tortuguero Visitors Center in Costa Rica, both of which are museum-quality education centers located on some of the most important sea turtle nesting beach in the world.

(3) Research and Conservation at critical sea turtle nesting beaches and in-water sites. STC’s 50-year-long program at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, is the most successful sea turtle research and recovery project in the world. A similar initiative at Chiriquí Beach, Panama, is utilizing lessons learned at Tortuguero to monitor and protect some of the world’s most important nesting colonies of leatherback and hawksbill turtles. The organization also monitors juvenile turtle populations in Bermuda. In Florida, STC conducts research on the migratory patterns of various species in order to help shape conservation efforts. And at various sites around the Caribbean, STC conducts research to help inform decision-makers and the public about threats to sea turtles and steps that can be taken to ensure their long-term survival.

The Sea Turtle Conservancy (formerly Caribbean Conservation Corporation) is the oldest sea turtle research and conservation organization in the world. The group was founded in Florida in 1959 by Dr. Archie Carr, the man widely recognized around the world as the leading authority on sea turtles. Over the last 50 years, STC’s work helped spawn a global movement to protect sea turtles and developed successful models for studying and protecting sea turtles that are now in use around the world. Most importantly, STC, through its many successful projects, has proved that sea turtles can be saved. It takes a great commitment of time, expertise, resolve and funding to achieve lasting results, but sea turtle conservation does work.

Over the last half century, STC has discovered much about what is known about the biology and life history of sea turtles. In the process, we have trained generations of sea turtle biologists and spawned a global movement toward sea turtle conservation. STC’s sustained research and conservation programs have been credited with saving the Atlantic green turtle from near extinction and improving the survival outlook for many other turtle populations. Despite the global advances in marine turtle conservation, threats to the survival of these species are on the rise. It is increasingly important that STC remain engaged in the diversity of issues affecting sea turtles and their habitats.

STC’s geographic focus encompasses the United States and Wider Caribbean because of the region’s unique importance to the world’s remaining sea turtle populations. However, the five-decades-long research and conservation program in Tortuguero, Costa Rica, remains a cornerstone of the organization’s efforts. STC is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization. The group’s headquarters is located in Gainesville, Florida, where project administration is coordinated. STC also has a Latin American office based in San Jose, Costa Rica, which serves as a base of operations for the organization’s Latin American Director, Roxana Silman, and the Scientific Director, Dr. Emma Harrison, both of whom provide vital scientific and logistical oversight for the project. The long-term research and conservation program in Tortuguero takes place out of STC’s fully functional Biological Field Station—a modern facility that includes several types of living accommodations, a dining room, a library and a visitor center and natural history museum. STC has an international membership of over 8,000 individuals. In addition to its professional staff, STC is led by a 23-member Board of Directors, which includes U.S. and Latin American members. Scientific guidance is also provided by a Scientific Advisory Committee, which includes ten of the world’s most accomplished and respected sea turtle scientists.

o STC's long-term conservation work in Tortuguero has produced one of the greatest marine conservation success stories in the world. Since the green turtle population at Tortuguero stopped its decline in the 1970s, STC has documented an over 500% increase in nesting at Tortuguero. In addition, the organization has worked with the people of Costa Rica to build a sustainable economy in Tortuguero based on turtle tourism, which replaces the extractive use of sea turtles. The Tortuguero nesting colony of green turtles is now the largest in the world.

o In 2003, STC launched a hawksbill and leatherback monitoring project at Chiriquí Beach and several other sites on Panama’s Caribbean coast. STC is now documenting a steady increase in nesting by both species, proving that our long-term conservation strategies work and that diminished sea turtle populations can be recovered.

o 2013 saw record levels of both loggerhead and green turtle nesting in Florida, particularly in the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, which STC helped establish in 1990. The story unfolding in the Carr Refuge is nothing short of miraculous. The well-documented successes at this refuge, which is named after STC’s founder, continue to inspire turtle conservationists around the world.

o STC’s annual Tour de Turtles research and education program deployed more than a dozen turtles in Florida and around the Caribbean with satellite transmitters to track their migrations. The 2013 program was featured in national and international media stories, helping STC reach hundreds of thousands of people with fun and inspiring information about sea turtles and the threats they face.

o In 2011, STC produced a high-definition film titled Tortuguero: The Epicenter of Sea Turtle Conservation to raise awareness about the organization’s history and role in sea turtle conservation. The film release coincided with the opening of a new theater at the Visitors Center located at STC’s Research Station in Tortuguero, Costa Rica, which hosts over 30,000 visitors each year.

o STC achieved a major victory for sea turtles in 2012 when it successfully stopped construction of an experimental “breakwater” project off the coast of Singer Island, Florida. This beach has some of the highest density of sea turtle nesting in the United States. The breakwater project would have posed a serious threat to nesting turtles, hatchlings leaving the beach, and to turtles that forage and migrate along that area of the coast. As a result of STC’s campaign against the project, the county commission abandoned the project and started analyzing other, natural options to combat coastal erosion. This victory set an important precedent that is forcing coastal communities to seek alternative solutions to erosion control that do not rely primarily on hard structures to protect economically and environmentally important sandy beaches.