Hello friends and supporters. We are happy to release our first official newsletter.
Let’s celebrate our successes in 2019! Although the 2018/2019 marine turtle nesting season was negatively influenced by the last Southern Oscillation of El Nino (collaborative research paper coming), we managed to secure 95% of all nest laid on Punta Pargos. After 18 years of anti-poaching patrols on Punta Pargos, we are still experiencing threats to the nesting area from scores of poachers. But our patrol team is winning the battle year after year on Punta Pargos and hatching out thousands of endangered sea turtles. This is due to the hard work of our patrol team and the incredible support from our sponsors and donors. Sea Turtles Forever (STF) managed to add great new people to our operations this year.
2019 has also been a successful year for our marine micro plastic removal operations. Our Blue Wave volunteer team removed thousands of pounds of marine micro plastic from northern Oregon beaches, spending over 40 days running filtration on affected beaches and hosting over 400 volunteers. The micro plastic density survey work we conducted was published in a report submitted by The Center for Biological Diversity to the Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality. The DEQ is about to release their follow-up report referencing our findings.
I would like to thank our sponsors for helping to make our work possible: Lush Cosmetics, Lamb Foundation, Billion Baby Turtles, Dragon Fire Art Gallery, The Rufford Foundation, Team One Volleyball, City of Cannon Beach , Jeff Hall Studios, IceFire Gallery, Sharon Amber Gallery, The Waves Motel, Webb’s Scenic Surf, and Bruce’s Candy Kitchen.
Marc W. Ward – Executive Director – Sea Turtles Forever