Leatherback Sea Turtles in Trinidad

Volunteers will help protect the giant leatherback turtle by monitoring and survey Trinidad's beaches in Matura Beach Protected Area, Trinidad, West Indies - This eight-kilometer stretch of beach on Trinidad's northeast coast is one of the five most valuable nesting rookeries on Earth for the endangered leatherback sea turtle. In the last three years alone, more than 7,000 leatherbacks have been documented nesting. What's more astounding is that, until recently, hundreds of nesting leatherbacks were killed and thousands of their eggs were poached annually at Matura Beach.

In 1990, a few concerned community members, with support from the Trinidad government, formed Nature Seekers, an organization that protects natural resources while creating a sustainable livelihood for community members. Over the last 13 years, this conservation project has reduced the slaughter of egg-bearing female leatherbacks from 30 percent to zero. Now you can help this pioneering community effort.

Through a pioneering project you will patrol the beaches nightly with Nature Seekers staff and volunteers, including Suzan Lakhan, recently recognized as a U.N. Environmental Program "Global 500" Laureate for her work here. Scientific advisor Dr. Scott Eckert (Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network at Duke University and founding scientist of Saving the Leatherback Turtle) and Dennis Sammy (Nature Seekers) will oversee the program. Your team will split into small groups that will patrol the beach nightly to tag and record data on more than 2,000 leatherback sea turtles that nest annually at Matura. You may also assist with Nature Seekers' education efforts, such as organizing a community environmental library. This is a stellar opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to a groundbreaking, community-based conservation operation that is critical to the leatherback turtle's future. Patrolling in soft sand from 8:30 p.m. to roughly 3:00 a.m., you'll share rooms in a guesthouse right in the community of 1,500 (accommodations available for couples) and enjoy best of local home-cooked meals of traditional fare. In your spare time, you can view red howler monkeys, observe juvenile sea turtles, or bird watch in this jungle coast community.