Saving one turtle at a time

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EDUCATION, Sustainability, Conservation

The Turtleman Foundation was founded by Joseph Conde, also known as “The Turtleman”. Founded with a goal to be able to give back to the cause of helping in saving the sea turtles, aiding in ocean conservation, and giving back to his passion, the ocean. Over the years The Turtleman Foundation has been able to help local sea turtle research centers within the US, as well as more recently being able to donate outside of the US in international projects. The Turtleman Foundation has been able to donate and help in funding important projects and research objectives of various ocean and marine life conservation organizations.
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2024 Recipient

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· Diani Turtle Watch

We are thrilled to announce that, with this donation, we will be able to continue supporting Diani Turtle Watch and Local Ocean Conservation this year through a new project. This project involves creating twelve informative signs along the coastline of the Diani-Chale Marine Reserve. These signs will offer guidelines for turtle-friendly practices and will be strategically placed at important locations near the beach. The purpose of these signs is to raise awareness about sea turtle conservation among the local community and visitors.
faunamar

· FaunaMar: Sea Turtles Conservation, Ceará State, northeast Brazil

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We are excited to announce that with this donation, we will be able to continue supporting Projeto Faunamar and Comissão Ilha Ativa this year. The funds will be used to purchase much-needed equipment for monitoring and the acquisition of fishing gear. Additionally, these funds will support environmental education activities.

Comissão Ilha Ativa

2024 Recipient

2023 Recipient

Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible!

  • Utría Natural National Park – Chocó, Colombia – South America @parquescolombia
  • CIMAD: @fundacimad
  • US Fish & Wildlife Service: @usfws
  • Artesanías Tortugas Sin Fronteras @artesanias_tortugas

· Utría Natural National Park – Chocó, Colombia

MURAL PROJECT in Colombia, S.A.

theturtlemanfoundation We’re thrilled to share another beautiful mural we’ve donated! It’s located at Utria Natural National Park – Chocó, Colombia – South America. It was made from recycled material collected by park staff and painted by an amazing local artist, Akilles.

23

· In Water Research

A long overdue, big THANK YOU to @theturtlemanfoundation for awarding us a grant to use acoustic telemetry to study sea turtle movement.

This funding allowed our team to purchase 10 acoustic tags to study juvenile and subadult green turtles that inhabit the Jupiter Inlet. These tags allow us to track the underwater movement of turtles by using sound that pings off acoustic receivers placed around the study site.

This data will allow us to visualize how green turtles utilize the inlet. Our current knowledge leads us to believe that small juveniles recruit to this shallow water area after a few years in the Sargasso Sea. They reside here for food and shelter until they approach the subadult stage before moving to deeper waters.

2023 Recipient

By understanding the behavior of turtles in the Jupiter Inlet, we can help protect this population by informing stakeholders and county managers on the importance of preserving this habitat.
Tag program

2023 Recipient

Project History: In the 1970s, special efforts were made to preserve five miles of Florida coastline in Palm Beach County and create a hands-on program to connect residents to marine life. This spark ignited to become GLCS, a group inspiring change through stewardship of coastal and marine ecosystems. Today, GLCS has influenced generations, becoming the region’s premier coastal stewardship organization. We are leading efforts to restore and protect our ocean’s coastal and marine life through the opportunities of education, research, and conservation. We offer grants to support critical research on coastal systems and marine life conducted by prominent scientists, graduate students, and citizen scientists. And, we work tirelessly to protect and conserve marine life by supporting rehabilitation and restoration, as evidenced by our direct funding to advanced veterinary care for sea turtles at the Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Facility at GLEC. Across Florida, our world-renowned veterinarian experts are known for treating vessel strike injuries, marine debris impacts, hook interactions, and FP found among a variety of sea turtles. Learn more by viewing PBS’s documentary which provides a birds-eye view into our efforts:httos://video.wIrn.ore/video/troubled-waters a-turtles-tale-9mivme/
gumbo-limbo

· Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards

Proposal Summary: Research conducted by experts at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) suggests that increasing sunlight exposure in sea turtle rehabilitation facilities will strengthen immunity, increase critical vitamin D levels, and improve sea turtle recovery from injury or illness. To improve immunity, enhance recovery, and strengthen capacity to treat injured and sick sea turtles, Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards (GLCS) requests up to $10,000 from The Turtleman Foundation to support a one-year capital campaign to create an outdoor sea turtle rehabilitation facility at the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex (GLEC). The Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Facility at GLEC is currently one of the few Fibropapillomatosis (FP) rehabilitation centers in southeast Florida, admitting sea turtles from across Florida. The newly constructed outdoor facility will help to strengthen rehabilitation efforts and will be adequately constructed following guidelines according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Marine Turtle Conservation Handbook.
faunamar

· FaunaMar: Sea Turtles Conservation, Ceará State, northeast Brazil

The proposed project is to promote the conservation of sea turtles in Ceará state, northeast Brazil, through research, education and community involvement. Activities: I- Keep record of reproduction; II- Dead stranding registration; III- Rescuing stranded turtles alive; IV- Artisanal fishing monitoring where animals are captured unintentionally; V- Implement community, touristic, and general public educational activities, through the “Amigos de FaunaMar Network”.

Study Area: 3-Work area: The study area involves the municipalities of Barroquinha and Camocim, in the far west of Ceara state, northeast Brazil. Located in four Environment Conservation Units.

2022 Recipient

One is federal (Environmental Protection Area-APA Delta do Parnaíba (States of Piauí/Ceará) and the other three are municipalities: APA Municipal de Tatajuba (Ceará), APA Municipal dela Playa de Maceió (Ceará) and APA Municipal Isla de la Testa Branca (Ceará).

2022 Recipient

Much later in 2012 Diani Turtle Watch came into being. This was because sea turtles were killed in numbers for food and their products sold on black market on the southern coast of Kenya.

Presently Diani Turtle Watch oversees approximately 30km of the beach stretch. This is from Kongo River to Chale Island and further down to Funzi Island.

We are based out of the Marine Education Centre at the Sands at Nomad Boutique Hotel.

15

· Diani Turtle Watch

Is program of Local Ocean Conservation. Local Ocean Conservation, previously Watamu Turtle Watch began in 1997 as a community-based organization with their focus being on human impacts to the marine world. This included beach development that hindered sea turtle nesting and frequent poaching. A team of trained turtle monitors sourced from the local community patrol the beach protecting nesting females, their eggs, and hatchlings as the emerged from the nests. Later in 1998 the By-Catch & Release Program was launched as a mitigation measure to solve the problem of accidental sea turtle net entanglement. This significantly reduced sea turtle mortalities in the area. In 2002 the name Local Ocean Conservation was adopted as a way of encouraging local community involvement in marine conservation.

· Gulfarium Care Center

Our C.A.R.E. Center is extremely grateful to have received a grant from The Turtleman Foundation! The awarded funding of $6,700 will help us to purchase medical and hospital supplies to support the care of our turtle patients, as well as a new beach transport cart for turtle releases! This grant would allow for us to upgrade our microscope, invest in a new suction unit, restock commonly used items such as ceftazidime, an antibiotic, fluids sterline saline, lactate ringers, and dextrose, as well as, vitamin B-12, B-complex, and Meloxicam. These are routinely used fluids, antibiotics, and vitamins. We will also be purchasing items such as cryovials, to store plasma and serum samples, I-stat cartridges to process in-house blood samples, IV lines to administer IV fluids. We would also be using the donation to purchase and ultrasonic instrument cleanser as well as new surgical and necropsy packs. We currently have old, incomplete packs. The new packs would allows us to have the best equipment to provide care to our patients and the cleaner would extend the life of our instruments.

2021 Recipient

Additionally, we will be purchasing ETHA foam to pad the tubs for transporting animals. As well as a Gorilla cart to aid in transporting sea turtle from the transport vehicle to the beach for public releases. We are also in need of additional cleaning supplies to better treat and take care of our holding habitats. Therefore, we will be purchasing stackable container to put scrubbers in once cleaned to prevent cross contamination of algae for each tank. A more sturdy longer pool cleaner to aid in pool cleanliness. The Turtleman Foundation was founded with a goal to help save sea turtles, aid in ocean conservation, and give back to the ocean. Over the years, The Turtleman Foundation has been able to help local sea turtle research centers all over the world!

2021 Recipient

With the generous donation of resources from The Turtleman Foundation, we will be able to improve the care, management and quarantine facilities. We will acquire important equipment and supplies for their management and care, such as a UV sterilizer to improve the filtration system in the care area. A refrigerator to preserve the food and supplemental jellies that are provided weekly. Additionally, we will be able to obtain the ideal supplement for them, which covers all the needs and requirements for these species when they are under human care. We also are in need for a new part of the hose that is used to pull water directly from the sea. Thanks to this donation we will be able to provide them with the best possible welfare during their stay in the aquarium.

· Mundo Marino

The Mundo Marino Aquarium is a non-profit foundation created in 1999 by people who were interested in making known the wonders of the marine species and ecosystems near the city of Santa Marta, where it has its headquarters. The aquarium is an educational and scientific tool, a complement for students of schools, colleges and universities in the teaching of natural sciences and actively participating in the protection and conservation of the natural environment. Additionally, we conduct guided tours where we teach visitors the importance of organisms, their role within the ecosystem and their threats, with approximately 70,000 visits per year of national and foreign people. Mundo Marino Aquarium will be the pioneer in the implementation of interactive strategies for the development of environmental education and research programs, with emphasis on coastal ecosystems. It will promote training models on the correct use of marine resources for schools, colleges, universities and the general public. The Marine World Aquarium project will work to make its message known internationally through the support of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and similar entities.

2021 Recipient

· Coriacea

Over the years the amazing Foundation Coriacea supports and helps the sea turtle conservation located in the area called “Golfo de Uraba”, located in Antioquia, Colombia, South America. Our name is a tribute to the world’s largest sea turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, the leatherback sea, which was the inspiration for the creation of this foundation. We are a private, non-profit civil organization that seeks to promote research and conservation of biological diversity through activities that promote knowledge and appropriation of the environment in local communities and the general population.
The Turtleman Foundation joins the Foundation Coriacea to contribute to support and promote the conservation of the sea turtles that nests in the Gulf of Urabá located in Antioquia, Colombia, South America. This is carried out locally by the Environmental Conservation and Ecotourism Association (Acaetur). Through direct interaction activities with members of the local town, and the children’s community, and local ambientalists many sea turtles received help and support in Colombia, South America. For this purpose, The Turtleman Foundation donated $ 4,000,000 pesos. Thank you Joseph Conde “The Turtle Man”.

· Contamos Contigo Ecuador

Contamos Contigo Ecuador is a sea turtle environmental conservation organization located in Ecuador. This year we had a dream of being able to sponsor a conservation group in Ecuador, South America. This foundation Contamos Contigo Ecuador, opened their first encampment that we have been able to sponsor and help on their journey to helping the sea turtles in their area. We have successfully donated to their foundation as their first international donation received ever! This year they have successfully helped multiple turtle nests reach the sea, as well as helped to protect them during nesting season. They are a growing foundation that has been able to help in saving sea turtles in this region, and we are so happy to be a part of their cause.

2020 Recipient

2020 Recipient

· PROCTMM Ocean Conservation

This great organization is located in Colombia and known for the amazing research they do in helping the study and advancements of sea turtle lifespan and rescue. They were able to build a brand new water tank for the rehabilitated turtles they study to help in understanding and preventing the dissipation of our beloved sea turtles.

· Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Center

The Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Center is a great organization that we had the pleasure of being able to sponsor. This organization is known for the local work they do with local beach cleanup projects and turtle rescues. We were able to donate to this organization an ATV to help them mark, track, and hatch local sea turtle nests of the area, as well as host their well known beach cleanups.

2019 Recipient

2017 Recipient

· Florida Leatherback Association

This association is a great organization based in Florida, which specializes in leatherback turtle research as well as rescue and safe hatching. We were able to donate an ATV to this great organization to help them run across the beaches and make their surveying and rescue process faster to help them tag, rescue, and rehabilitate turtles in their area.

· Georgia Sea Turtle Center

The Georgia Jekyll Island Sea Turtle Center was the first organization that The Turtleman Foundation was able to sponsor in 2012. We loved to sponsor them for multiple years and helped them maintain their current sea turtle hospitals, as well as help them get a new holding tank for their turtles in rescue. This organization is known for their amazing sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation, and for the great work they do for the east coast turtles.

2015-2016 Recipient