A leatherback released by a collaboration of fishermen, scientists, and government officials in Sinaloa, México
We love to be able to share good news about conservation activities with positive results for leatherbacks and the people who care about them in the Eastern Pacific. Laúd OPO member, Dr Alan Zavala Norzagaray, shared such positive news recently. At the end of March of this year, a leatherback turtle got entangled in fishing […]
Laúd OPO workshop connects members across the region
More than 40 members of the Laúd OPO network convened for our annual workshop, during the International Sea Turtle Symposium in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. The Marine Turtle Conservation Fund of the US Fish and Wildlife Service generously supported the workshop. While most participants were present in the meeting room, more than a dozen other […]
Laúd OPO network extends regional bycatch assessment
Laúd OPO network extends regional bycatch assessment from South America to Mexico Leatherbacks in the eastern Pacific face threats throughout the region, but none has a bigger impact than accidental interactions with fishing gear, or bycatch. While the threat of bycatch is well-known, it isn’t very well documented in the region. This lack of baseline […]
Happy Pacific Leatherback Day! Leatherback nesting season has begun!
Today is Pacific leatherback day! We’re happy to report that the 2018-2019 leatherback nesting season has begun! In September, we heard from friends in Costa Rica that a leatherback was spotted off the coast, which indicated that they had arrived off nesting beaches to find mates and get ready to nest. On 1 October, the […]
Training Workshops on Best Practices for Management of Incidentally Captured Sea Turtles in Colombia and Panama
The Regional Plan of Action for the Conservation of the East Pacific Leatherback identified the importance of characterizing and mitigating fisheries bycatch of immature and adult leatherbacks in Colombia and Panama, countries where until a year ago, very little information about leatherback bycatch was available. In this context, JUSTSEA became a member of the Laúd […]
Enrique Laúd, the story of a leatherback male rescued in Sinaloa, México.
In February 2017, fishermen in the northern Gulf of California got an unexpected surprise when hauling in their fishing gear. An adult leatherback turtle—a male!—had become entangled in a fishing net on the north coast of Sinaloa. Thanks to years of collaboration between biologists and local fishing communities, the fishermen reported it and delivered it […]
Eastern Pacific leatherback network growing regionally by extending efforts to evaluate bycatch in Mexico, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica
In June 2016, the Eastern Pacific leatherback network – or la Red para la Laúd del Océano Pacifico Oriental “LaúdOPO” in Spanish – convened a 3-day workshop in Mexico City to continue strengthening regional conservation efforts. The workshop, hosted by the Comisión de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP) and attended by 20 participants from Chile, Peru, […]
Eastern Pacific Leatherback Network “LaúdOPO” launches next phase of conservation efforts for leatherbacks in the region
More than 25 partners from Chile to the U.S. gathered together recently in Lima, Perú, to relaunch an integrated regional effort focused on conservation of critically endangered Eastern Pacific leatherback turtles. This effort continues in support of the EP Leatherback Action Plan released in 2013. The workshop, hosted by Fauna and Flora International, took place […]
Workshop to prioritize monitoring work on Costa Rica’s leatherback beaches
Costa Rica’s Las Baulas National Park is known as perhaps the single most important remaining site for leatherbacks nesting in the East Pacific Ocean, and has been widely believed to host nearly all leatherback nesting in Costa Rica. But when we began working on the East Pacific Leatherback Action Plan, we were surprised to learn […]
Back from the brink? Saving East Pacific leatherback turtles from extinction
When I was a first-year graduate student in 2001, I made my first trip to Parque Nacional Marino Las Baulas (Leatherback National Marine Park), in the northwest corner of Costa Rica, to begin my doctoral research on leatherback turtles. For a couple of seasons before I arrived, biologists, park rangers, and local turtle tour guides […]