The primary aim of this project is to ensure the long-term protection of critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles in Jiquilisco Bay, El Salvador, and ultimately recover the population.
This funding from the Footprints Network partners was used for the 2013 nesting season (beginning May 2013 and ending Oct 2013). This report includes activities though the end of August 2013.
The project has been a major success with the following activities conducted.
Nest protection
117 Nightly beach patrols to document hawksbill nesting and protect nests at Bahía Jiquilisco in El Salvador, were conducted. These night patrols included shifts from 18:00-23:00 and from 23:00-04:00.
Two large hatcheries measuring 10m x 10m, with a capacity of 200 nests each, were constructed prior to the start of the season. The hatcheries were located on the San Juan del Gozo Peninsula at Punta San Juan and on the outskirts of the community of La Pirraya on Isla San Sebastian (Red dots in Figure 1). Las Isletas beach has served as a refuge to house and protect all in-situ nests.
A total of 164 successful hawksbill nesting events have been recorded thus far during the 2013 nesting season at Bahía Jiquilisco.
Of the 164 nests recorded at the site, 14 (8.5%) were protected in-situ (i.e. natural environment), 145 (88.4%) were protected in the program hatchery and only 5 (3%) were poached.
The overall protection rate of endangered hawksbill turtle eggs was 97%!
Photo: A volunteer collecting and counting eggs
The Egg Hatchery
30,699 eggs were kept in the 145 nests protected in the hatchery.
Of those eggs, 14,661 have hatched, leading to the production of 9,858 hatchlings and a hatching success rate of 67.2%.
Hawksbill eggs require approximately 60 days to develop and hatch and thus a large percentage of the nests have still not hatched.
Photo: The Hatchery
Photo: Inside the Hatchery, showing each space marked out for a nest (200 spaces in total)
Turtle monitoring
A total of 49 individual hawksbill turtles were tagged while nesting Bahía Jiquilisco, all of which were first time nesters. Intense tagging only began in Bahía Jiquilisco in 2012 and considering the species nests every 2-3 years, we expect re-nesters from previous seasons to begin returning in the upcoming 2014 season.
All new turtles were tagged with either Inconel tags or PIT (Passive Integrative Transponder) tags or both.
Photo: Collecting data from a nesting Hawksbill Turtle
Local employment and the incentive program:
Eight local program staff members were hired during the 2013 season to manage all on-site research and conservation activities in Bahía Jiquilisco. These represent critical employment opportunities in the program area, where jobs are extremely hard to come by.
In addition to direct employment, an average of 26 local heads-of-households have participated in the incentive program each month, providing much needed revenue to families in the program area.
International participant/volunteer program.
Responsible ecotourism or ‘volunteerism’ with conservation efforts via participant programs has benefited numerous sea turtle programs across the world. This sort of tourism offers an adventure for the participant, it also expands the profitable travel industry to developing countries/areas, where jobs are often scarce.
We developed three different types of tourism during the 2013 season, including:
- International volunteers: from one week to the entire season with the hawksbill conservation program.
- Short-term tourists: typically groups of 5+ people who tour the area for only two to three days, partaking in project activities and other tourism opportunities.
- Community-based rural tourism: tourists that visit the program areas for only one day and take part in turtle conservation activities and/or other tourism activities in the vicinity.
We hosted a total of seven International Volunteers, generating critical funding for both the project and the community, and also recruited two long-term Volunteer Coordinator Assistants.
To improve the Tour Guiding capability of locals, we developed a 3 day workshop that also provided official certification to guides.
Photo: Volunteers planting hawskbill eggs in the hatchery for safe keeping
“Thank you, thank you, thank you for an amazing time working with
ICAPO! It was an incredible experience, not to be forgotten. I so
appreciate the work each of you do and thank you for the opportunity to
work side-by-side with you to save our beloved hawksbills. I look
forward to hearing how "my" nest (S2) and all my little hatchlings do in
the months to come”. Deborah Goldstein (SEE Turtles & ICAPO international volunteer)
"The Hawksbill Cup"
The Soccer World Cup is an unrivalled cultural phenomenon in Latin America and the "Hawksbill Regional Cup" seeks to emulate this. The hawksbill nesting season represents the “final match” between the program team in Bahía Jiquilisco and the team of our sister program in Nicaragua.
Each team competes to score more “hawksbill conservation points” (e.g., highest percentage of nests protected, greatest hatching success, etc.), using “careymetros” (hawksbill-shaped measurement gauges), which are located at hatcheries and are updated monthly.
Team t-shirts for each site were given to egg collectors that participated in the competition.
What's next for this project
Ongoing observations and data collection of nesting females will likely continue through mid-September,
Nest protection and hatchling recruitment will likely occur through the end of October, as nesting incubating in the hatchery typically need 45-60 to hatch.
The hawksbill festival will be held in Bahía Jiquilisco in late October and will include activities such as the ‘Miss Hawksbill’ competition, cultural events, local and national musical performances, games, face painting, marine turtle informational kiosks, a gastronomical fair and other activities. We will also hand out awards to local leaders and participants for their collaborative efforts with the project.
A “closing” meeting to share the final results of the project, including the winner of the Hawksbill Cup, with community members will be held in late November.
Photo: A community meeting to discuss the protection strategy for the Hawksbill Turtles
Can I visit this project?
Yes, You can join this program as a Turtle Conservation volunteer in Bahía Jiquilisco. More details
Project aim
The primary aim of this project is to ensure the long-term protection of critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles in Jiquilisco Bay, El Salvador, and ultimately recover the population.
Specific objectives include:
- Empower local people in protecting nesting hawksbill turtles from illegal poaching activity
- Provide incentives for collection and protection of hawksbill eggs by local residents, proper handling of eggs, and coordination with local researchers
The result of the project will be the protection of more than 90% of the hawksbill eggs laid at beaches around Jiquilisco Bay.
For every dollar that Footprints customers donate, two hatchlings will be saved.
Project Activities
Through the egg incentive program, Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative (known in Spanish as ICAPO) employs approximately 75 local residents (known as “tortugueros”) to patrol the beaches in search of nests that are spread out around Jiquilisco Bay. Once found, these tortugueros radio project staff to collect data on the turtles and bring their eggs to a hatchery, where they are protected until hatching.
Local residents will receive an incentive of US $2.50 per dozen eggs that they bring to the project hatchery, an incentive to contact project staff when a turtle is found (to collect scientific data), and an incentive based on how many hatchlings emerge from the nest, the latter to encourage proper egg handling.
The $5000 contribution to this program allows ICAPO to purchase nearly
every egg laid for the 2013 nesting season (approximately 20,000 eggs)
as well as provide for additional incentives to ensure sound handling of
eggs and collection of scientific data.
While this program requires funding each year, SEE Turtles is developing a new effort that we hope will provide sustainable funding in the near future. SEE Turtles will also work to match this donation for the 2013 nesting season which if successful will help to protect both primary nesting sites (Jiquilisco Bay in El Salvador and Estero Padre Ramos in Nicaragua), resulting in protection of more than 90% of the eggs deposited by this sea turtle population in the entire Eastern Pacific Ocean. In addition, SEE Turtles will cover any administrative costs incurred with this donation, ensuring that 100% of funding goes towards turtle conservation.
Broken down into costs per egg, a rough calculation is that $1 will ensure the protection of 3 eggs, of which under normal conditions 2 will hatch.
In other words, for every dollar that Footprints customers donate, two hatchlings will be saved.
Photo: Hawksbill sea-turtle with tracking device attached. Brad Nahill/See Turtles
Background on Hawksbill turtles in El Salvador
El Salvador is the most densely populated country in Central America, leading to high levels of poverty in many areas. Socio-economic strife is particularly evident in the coastal areas of Bahia Jiquilisco (Bay) in El Salvador, where the average income is less than $200/month.
The Bay consists of extensive mangrove-lined estuaries surrounded by small communities who survive primarily on subsistence fishing and agriculture. Most individuals are generating just barely enough to meet the most basic needs such as food and clothing. Job scarcity and extremely limited options to generate income in these areas is a major issue, often serving as the impetus for harmful activities such as habitat destruction (e.g. agriculture, shrimp farms, etc.), destructive fishing practices (e.g. blast fishing, use of prohibited fishing gear, etc.), and illegal turtle egg collection.
Despite these pressures, the Bay still teems with wildlife and represent the most well-preserved mangrove forests in El Salvador.
Hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) inhabiting the Pacific Coast of the Americas are considered one of the most endangered sea turtle populations on the planet (Wallace et al. 2011) and only four years ago were considered locally extinct in this region.
Nonetheless, the nesting area of Jiqulisco Bay, as well as that in the Padre Ramos Estuary in Nicaragua, were recently discovered to host hundreds of hawksbill nests each year, together supporting approximately 90% of the nesting by the species in the entire eastern Pacific Ocean.
The findings provided a unique opportunity to improve local socio-economic improvements through conservation activities while providing hope for the future of this critically endangered turtle population, estimated at fewer than 500 reproductive female turtles.
Project Partners
Our principal partner on the ground is the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative (known in Spanish as ICAPO). Over the past three years, ICAPO has partnered with several local community groups to initiate hawksbill conservation and community betterment programs at both Jiquilisco Bay and the Padre Ramos Estuary.
Local community support and project ownership have been the cornerstones of the many successes to date, which include more than 1,000 nests protected, the release of more than 100,000 hatchlings and financial benefits to more than 150 local families.
Program staff, including project coordinators and field technicians, consists entirely of local community members. In this manner, the program provides direct employment to more than 15 locals from surrounding villages.
How this project fits into a larger strategy
To date ICAPO has been able to successfully spearhead efforts to consolidate funding for the program through an assortment of small grants and public support. However, with the ultimate goal of being able to transfer complete control of the programs to local community groups, our team (the hawksbill committees) is aware of the need to develop a sustainable source of income.
Responsible ecotourism or ‘volunteerism’ with conservation efforts via participant programs has benefited numerous sea turtle programs across the world. The idea largely evolved in the 1990s along with growing traveler awareness of issues surrounding sea turtle conservation. While this sort of tourism offers an adventure for the participant, it also expands the profitable travel industry to developing countries/areas, where jobs are often scarce. Participants pay a fee to assist in conservation activities, while also receiving food and lodging from local families, thus generating funds for the project and the community. Participants typically also get involved with other local ecological and social issues, providing unique cultural and educational experiences for both visitors and locals alike.
SEE Turtles is supporting the development of ICAPO’s ecotourism and volunteer programs by providing free marketing through our website, social media networks, online magazine, and media outlets.
Can I visit this project?
Yes! SEE Turtles can help set up volunteers to work with this program through ICAPO and organize traveller visits to this area through EcoViva, another organization working in this region. Contact SEE Turtles