Why You Should Take Your Kids Turtle Watching

(Note: this post was originally written for the Green Loons Blog)

10. Sea turtles don’t bite (and if they try, they are easy to get away from).

9. They are easy to spot since we know when and where they are nesting in places like Baja Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Southeastern U.S.).

8. Sea turtles are endangered and visiting their nesting beaches can help to protect them by providing income to conservation groups local communities.

7. Watching turtle hatchlings scurry to the water is better than any cartoon, video game, or nature show.

6. The beach where turtles lay their eggs are warm and most have great waves for body surfing and nearby places to snorkel.

5. Giant leatherback turtles are Earth’s last living dinosaur more than 6 feet long and up to 1,000 pounds or more!

4. A few turtle nesting beaches in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico, and India have “arribadas” where thousands of olive ridley turtles nest at one time. Imagine that photo!

3. For older kids (16+), some turtle projects offer families the opportunity to play marine biologist and volunteer for several nights helping collect information and protect the eggs.

2. In places where turtles are well protected like Hawaii, you can swim near green turtles and watch how graceful they are in the water. (Remember not to touch them!)

1. Your kids can watch a turtle laying its eggs at night (without lights) and not bother the turtle (they go into a trance while laying).

Good News for Lions

While passing through DC on my current business trip, I had a day full of news and opportunities to participate in lion conservation. With lions in such a dire situation (some researchers say their numbers have dropped 30 percent over the past two decades to fewer than 30,000), many organizations are stepping up their efforts to protect these iconic animals.

In the morning I met John Kaseona who works with IRDNC, a Namibian wildlife organization that works with local communities to develop ways to protect endangered animals in ways that benefit residents. Namibia passed a forward-thinking law in the 90’s that gave tribes full control over tourism on their communal lands. These communal conservancies now protect growing populations of lions where their numbers are dropping in most places.

John heads soon to Denver, where he will be presenting on March 7th in partnership with Reefs to Rockies. If you are around Denver, go and check out what is sure to be a fascinating presentation. SEEtheWILD is proud that Reefs to Rockies tour, Nambia & Botswana’s Desert & Delta, works closely with these conservancies and benefits the Desert Lion Project that IRDNC and others work with. We’re hoping to work more with John and his partners as SEEtheWILD grows.

That evening, I attended a cocktail party about lion conservation at the headquarters of National Geographic. Their new Big Cats Initiative is an exciting new way that people can learn about and support the conservation of lions, tigers, and other big cats. They recently released a fascinating movie called The Last Lions, be sure to go see it if its playing near you. At the party, people from IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare), the Humane Society, and Born Free announced that they had just filed a petition to list lions as endangered species in the US. Hundreds of lions are imported into the US from hunting safaris. Their parts can be bought for thousands of dollars, fueling a trade that threatens these animals in the wild. Tigers and other animals outside of the US receive this protection, which would prevent the importing of these parts.

I also had the pleasure of meeting with staff of the African Wildlife Foundation. We look forward to supporting their Conservation Enterprise program to help support community-based wildlife conservation efforts through our trips. AWF is the primary partner with Disney for their upcoming movie African Cats, which comes out on Earth Day, April 22nd. If you go see the movie during the first week, Disney will donate 20 cents per person to AWF for their lion conservation work (a donation of at least $100,000).