Today is World Sea Turtle Day, a day to honor the importance of sea turtles! From maintaining seagrass beds and coral reefs to balancing marine food webs, sea turtles are critical to the health of their environments. But sea turtles are in trouble— six of the seven species are currently threatened with extinction. Of these, three species (green, hawksbill, and kemp's ridley sea turtles) are considered to be endangered or critically endangered, according to the IUCN Red List. In honor of World Sea Turtle Day on Earthwatch’s 50th Anniversary, we’ve created a map to show you all of the sea turtle-focused expeditions Earthwatch has run since our founding and highlight the incredible impact our research has had.
Since 1978, Earthwatch has supported 21 independent sea turtle research projects in 14 nations. Earthwatch’s support for these projects ranges from 1-28 years, with a total of 120 project-years of support. From this support, a total of 52 policies, management plans, or protected areas were created or contributed to with the data collected on these expeditions. And we wouldn’t have been able to do any of it without volunteers like you. Over 5,000 volunteers participated on these expeditions, collecting critical data, conserving vital habitat, and protecting adorable hatchlings.
You can click on the turtles on the map below to learn about each of our projects, including the years they ran, the lead scientist, years of Earthwatch support, number of species studied, number of peer-reviewed publications created, and number of policies influenced.
