Wildlife Conservation Nicaragua Project #43504

Save the Sea Turtles

by Paso Pacifico

Project Report | Jun 26, 2025
Progress in preparation for turtle nesting season!

By Sarah Otterstrom | Executive Director

Galapagos Green hatchling heads out to sea

Dear friends,

As we prepare for the upcoming sea turtle nesting season, I want to share the progress we’ve made thanks to your steadfast support. The rains have begun in Nicaragua, signaling the start of a critical time for sea turtles, and our team is working tirelessly to ensure these endangered species have the protection they need.

Thanks to your generosity, we’ve taken important steps to safeguard nesting beaches and hatcheries. In 2024 alone, we’ve removed over 5,000 pounds of trash from Nicaragua’s coastlines, creating cleaner and safer environments for sea turtles to nest. We’ve also installed new signage in local towns and mangroves, encouraging communities to keep these vital habitats free of litter.

Our team has been working diligently to prepare for the nesting surge. Both of our turtle nurseries have been thoroughly cleaned and maintained, ensuring they are free from threats like disease and invasive crabs. The care we put into these hatcheries directly impacts the survival of each nest, so this preparation is crucial. Additionally, we’ve provided refresher training for the guards at Rancho Santana and shared useful practices with nearby hotels to help them protect nesting turtles.

We have also continued our partnership with Rancho Santan resort where their personnel protect the beaches year-round. Earlier this month, our team traveled up to Rancho Santana to give a refresher course on techniques for measuring turtles, recording nests, and maintaining the nursery in ideal conditions for nests. This partnership is especially important because the Colorado Beach at Rancho Santana has a relatively high number of Galapagos Green and Hawksbill sea turtle nests.

Despite the great things underway with our sea turtle program, the challenges ahead are daunting. Poaching pressure is at an all-time high, and we are deeply concerned about the safety of this season’s nests. But we remain determined. Through our two hatcheries, we work closely with local women who oversee the rescued nests, many of which are brought to us by poachers looking to sell the eggs. While this is a challenging reality, it allows us to give these eggs a fighting chance.

One of our key focuses this season is Brasilon Beach, a critical nesting site for the endangered Galapagos green turtle. With increased patrols and community engagement, we’re doing everything we can to protect this vital habitat.

The nesting season is just beginning, and the need for support has never been greater. Will you stand with us in this fight? Together, we can ensure that more sea turtles make it safely to the ocean.

With Gratitude,

Paso Pacifico

Keeping the turtle hatchery clean

Sea turtle workshop for Rancho Santana guards

People waiting for turtles to nest to take eggs

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Dec 19, 2024
Nesting sea turtles need your help today!

By Sarah Otterstrom | Executive Director

Poaching activity last month

I have some urgent news to share with you.

Just last week, my phone rang, and I received word that several hundred olive ridley sea turtles had begun nesting at a beach a few miles from where our rangers work in Nicaragua. The female turtles were crawling onto the sand to lay their eggs in synchronicity. An incredible sight!

But the report turned dark. Dozens of people were combing the beach, standing over the turtles. As a turtle laid her nest, the people dug up the eggs. It was so bad that at the end of that nesting event, 100% of the nests were destroyed and the eggs taken. The eggs were likely sold to middlemen who bring them to restaurants or to wildlife traffickers. And now, thousands of sea turtles will never hatch.

Stories like this are heartbreaking, but they are common where we work because there are so few conservation groups operating. If our sea turtle program cannot continue, I can honestly write that even more turtle nests will be stolen.

I’m witing to you today to ask you to send in a special year-end gift to help protect one sea turtle nest.

I aim to raise $5000 on GlobalGiving by the end of the year to ensure that our community rangers can start the year on solid footing as they protect turtle nests in situ, or in nurseries. The roles of the rangers vary, but every single community ranger is extremely important to me, and I know they are important to you because of what they do to help sea turtles.

Our resources are thin this holiday season and I could sure use your help. Right now, the ranger’s lanterns are corroded from the sand and the salt water, they need new boots after hiking through the wet sand and mud this year, and they are concerned about their employment because they are some of the few local people who have stable jobs and people look up to them for the environmental work they do.

The good news is that you can help!

Will you please send a year-end gift by midnight, December 31^st to help save a sea turtle nest?

Your gift will help us to sustain the community rangers who work tirelessly to keep sea turtles safe. Your aid will make it possible for them to protect nests in situ from poachers. At the beaches we cannot patrol, your donation will provide the funds needed to exchange money for eggs so that we can take the eggs to our sea turtle nurseries where they will be protected by our team of female rangers. When the baby turtles hatch in the nursery, the rangers will safely escort them to the ocean.

Your GlobalGiving gift to this sea turtle project can make a difference as it will help protect a sea turtle nest!

I hope you are well, and that you have a moment to count your blessings on this wonderful season. Thank you in advance for your generous gift.

Sincerely,

Sarah Otterstrom, Ph.D.

Executive Director

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Dec 2, 2024
Your help makes a difference for baby sea turtles!

By Sarah Otterstrom | Executive Director

Ranger evaluates nesting success

Thank you for your support for our sea turtle program in Nicaragua. Thank you for helping to sustain 12 community rangers!

This year was a challenging one due to heightened poaching pressures and decreased nesting. Yet, our community rangers persisted by negotiating peacefully with poachers at the Brasilon beach, a globally important beach for the Galapagos Green Sea Turtle, managed two sea turtle nurseries in southern Rivas Department, and supported one major sea turtle nursery in the Tola Department.

Here are some of the impacts for sea turtles, thanks to your support!

Eight sea turtle rangers (4 women) employed by Paso Pacifico, four by Rancho Santana
3296 hatchlings protect by Paso Pacifico rangers, mainly Galapos Green Sea Turtles
3717 green and olive ridley hatchlings from Rancho Santana

Concernly, 2024 had one third of average nesting activity. Even more concerning was that our beaches only saw one nesting hawksbill turtles nesting and zero leatherback. Both of these species are critically endangered. We don't know why nesting is down, but it is likely related to the La Ninna climate phenomenon which shifts the temperatures of ocean currents. We believe that the numbers will rebound, but when they do, it will be important that our team is ready to protect the nests on the beach.

We are particularly anxious to see the leatherback sea turtle nesting numbers this season, and with your help, we will be prepared to protect nests from now until May when the leatherback nesting ends.

Thank you for getting us through this difficult nesting season, and please consider renewing your support in celebration of #GivingTuesday!

Sincerely,

When not protecting nests, rangers help the sea!

Exhale. A beautiful baby olive ridley sea turtle.

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