Suriname Sea Turtle Conservation

Galibi Reserve, Suriname.  Sea turtles are threatened throughout the globe and the dramatic declines in leatherback populations in the Pacific suggest that the concern for their future is well-founded.  Once a major nesting site for green, leatherback and olive ridley's sea turtles, sea turtles in Suriname face a variety of threats from predation and poaching of nests onshore, to fishing nets just off shore and out at sea. 

Working in collaboration with the Surinam Foundation for Nature Preservation (STINASU) and the local Amerindian Communities, the sea turtle conservation project aims to document the number of each species using the Galibi reserve, to determine how they use their habitat, and when necessary, to rescue turtle nests that are inundated by incoming tides.  

In its maiden year in 1999, the project documented and mapped nearly 500 nests and hatched out literally thousands of baby sea turtles from rescued nests. Organized sea turtle egg poaching and offshore incidental catch of turtles in fishing nets, is cause for  domestic and international concern for the turtles, the threats to these animals are ever present.