Short Summary
Billion Baby Turtles was founded by two lifelong turtle
conservationists, Dr. Wallace J. Nichols and Brad Nahill, who have spent decades
working with community-based conservation programs in Mexico and Costa Rica. This
initiative is part of SEE Turtles, a non-profit project that supports sea
turtle conservation through travel and education. Billion Baby Turtles and SEE Turtles are sponsored by The Ocean Foundation and all donations go through this organization.
We believe conservation should have concrete outcomes. For
every dollar that we raise, we will save at least one turtle hatchling by
providing the funds needed to hire people to patrol nesting beaches, build
hatcheries that keep the eggs safe until hatching, and support educational
programs. Since the project launched in April 2013, we have helped save more
than 120,000 hatchlings at ten important turtle nesting beaches in Latin
America. With your help, we can save another 5,000 endangered sea turtle
hatchlings through this campaign.
Under natural conditions, scientists estimate that just one
out of a thousand turtle hatchlings survive until adulthood. Add in poaching,
getting caught in fishing gear, and other threats and its not surprising that
six out of seven species are threatened or endangered. Our goal for Billion
Baby Turtles is to reverse that trend and fill the oceans with turtle
hatchlings, raising the odds for sea turtle survival.
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(photo: Neil Ever Osborne)
What We Need & What You Get
We have a really big goal, to put a billion hatchlings into
the ocean to help restore sea turtle populations. With your help, we can put another
dent in that goal while helping to support deserving community-based turtle
conservation projects around the world. Our goal for this campaign is to raise
at least $5,000 which we will provide to organizations around Latin America to
pay for their teams to protect important nesting beaches and build hatcheries
where turtle eggs are protected until hatching. The result from this campaign will
be at least 5,000 hatchlings
protected in 2014.
With the help of our friends and sponsors, we are offering a wide range of incentives including eco-friendly items like Klean Kanteens, sea turtle themed items like flags, postcards, and glass turtles, and a plastic-free pack. For our larger donors, we can offer unique sea turtle experiences and the campaign's largest donor will receive a beautiful turtle print by artist Gloria Clifford.
The Impact
Healthy oceans and coastal communities need sea turtles.
They help to keep prey like jellyfish under control and their nests help
stabilize beaches. They help coastal communities by providing a great
ecotourism attraction and many indigenous cultures celebrate them. Watching a
sea turtle come ashore to lay its eggs is an extraordinary experience that
everyone should be able to have.
Billion Baby Turtles more than doubled its goal of saving
50,000 turtle hatchlings in 2013 with a total of 106,000 saved at 10 nesting
beaches across Latin America. With your help, we’ll pass our goals again in
2014!
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(photo: Alejandro Arenas Martinez / Flora, Fauna y Cultura)
Other Ways You Can Help
Donations are great but aren’t the only way you can help.
The more people we reach, the more successful we will be so please help share
the word with friends and family, on Facebook and Twitter, by email or
dinnertime conversation!
Want to see sea turtles in person? We can help set you up to
volunteer or visit a sea turtle conservation project where your time and energy
will be put to good use. Learn more at SEEturtles.org.