Great Turtle Race

Where We Stand|Poachers to Protectors|The People

Q and A with Dr. Jim Spotila, Drexel University, founder of the Leatherback Trust

hy are you doing this promotion?

We’re doing this “race” to raise awareness and invite donations to protect leatherback turtles on Playa Grande beach and in the water. These amazing animals have been around 100 million years, but may have only 10 years left. There are probably only 4,000 leatherback turtles left in the entire Pacific Ocean. There used to be tens of thousands. As we say in the race theme, “They are going faster than you think.”

hy do you put satellite tags on turtles?

If we want to protect the leatherbacks, we need to know where they go and why they go there. The ocean changes all the time, from day to day, from year to year. So, it’s very difficult to protect migratory species like turtles because they change their routes. So the same place that had lots of food for turtles this year may be different next year. The data that the turtles are sending to us will let us predict their journeys, in time and space – and help us to protect them wherever they are. We’re looking forward to the day when commercial fishers know where the turtles are so that they can put their nets and long lines where the turtles aren’t.

Where the turtles go, so do many other threatened species, such as billfish, sharks and albatross. When we protect turtles, we are also protecting the other species that are around them.

o the tags hurt the turtles?

No. They weigh less than a student’s backpack holding one biology book. The turtle doesn’t notice her “satellite backpack”, and the harness that holds the satellite doesn’t bother the turtle or interfere with her movement. After about a year and a half, the harness and the tag drop off the turtle.

hy do you have companies sponsoring the turtles?

We wanted to engage people in an urgent cause and to have some fun while they’re learning about leatherbacks. So we invited corporations to participate in the race and have a friendly competition. Each company pays $25,000 to sponsor a turtle. Some of the money goes to buy the satellite tags.They're very expensive -- about $10,000 each (including the harness). Some of the money goes to pay for the logistics of the Great Turtle Race Web site. The rest of the money goes to protecting the leatherbacks' nesting beach.

ow is the government of Costa Rica protecting the beaches at Playa Grande?

They’ve made the entire beach a national park, and are buying property to include in the park. We’re also working with them to develop a plan to make sure the property behind the park is low-impact development, so that Playa Grande doesn’t have the bright lights at night that Tamarindo does. Leatherbacks don’t like bright lights.

ow did you get all the turtles to leave Playa Grande on April 16th?

Actually the turtles didn't really start on April 16th. It takes several days to get the satellite tags on all the turtles. One reason is because sometimes several nights go by without a leatherback coming ashore late in the nesting season. Another reason is that we wanted to wait to put the satellite tags on the turtles when they were ready to migrate from the nesting beach. Their nesting season begins in October, and they nest seven times, on average, throughout the nesting season that ends in February. So, we put the transmitters on the 11 turtles at the end of January and the beginning of February, toward the end of the nesting season. (By the way, only 59 turtles came to the beach this year as compared to 1,500 in 1988.)

Then we collected the data on them as they left the beach and swam into the Pacific Ocean. For the Great Turtle Race we zeroed out their departure dates and are postdating the race - like a time-delay broadcast of the Olympics from Japan - so that day one in the race is April 16 for all turtles. In that way we can present the travels of the turtles in a way that is easy to follow for the viewers of the race.

I wish I knew what they were actually doing out there, but only the person handling the data knows that and they won’t tell me since I am rooting for Drexelina.

ow can I help?

» Register to support a turtle. It’s free.You’ll receive daily updates on your turtle’s progress and messages from researchers about leatherbacks and other endangered marine and land species.

» Encourage other turtle supporters! Forward this site to family, friends, and co-workers.

» Donate! The donations will be used by the Leatherback Trust to protect turtles on their nesting beaches and along their migration route.

» Keep plastics out of lakes, rivers, and oceans. Join in Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup on September 15, 2007.

» Eat seafoods that don’t hurt sea turtles and other marine animals. Here’s the Monterey Bay Aquarium pocket guide.

» Volunteer with EarthWatch to help patrol Playa Grande’s beaches during Leatherback nesting months.

» Keep informed about leatherbacks and other sea turtles. After the race ends on April 30, follow your turtle by going to http://www.topp.org. And check out other turtle projects on http://www.seaturtlestatus.org.