SWOT GRANT RECIPIENTS

Since 2006, SWOT’s grants have helped field-based partners around the world achieve important research and conservation goals. To date, 201 grants have been awarded to 153 applicants in more than 58 countries and territories for work addressing four key themes: (1) networking and capacity building, (2) filling of data gaps, (3) behavior change for conservation, and (4) conservation action. The following are overviews of SWOT’s 2025 grantees. Visit www.SeaTurtleStatus.org/grants for application instructions and a list of past SWOT grantees.

© Society for Marine Species Conservation

Atoll Marine Conservation (Maldives)

The organization will expand its Sea Turtle Heroes program to deliver school-based education that reduces illegal take and pet-keeping while fostering long-term conservation attitudes and community stewardship across the Maldives.

Bahari Hai Conservation (Kenya)

The organization will strengthen its conservation efforts with the Roka fishing community through training, improving turtle handling and data collection, organizing monitoring patrols, and sharing results with fishers to support long-term stewardship.

Community Unification for Responsible Management of Aquatic Resources (CURMA) (Philippines)

Community-based protection and monitoring in La Union will be expanded, which will strengthen local capacity to address threats to critical nesting, foraging, and breeding habitat and to support long-term sea turtle stewardship.

Centro de Estudios AquaMarina Asociación Civil (Argentina)

The center will study the distribution and habitat use of adult male leatherbacks in the South Atlantic, using data collection and satellite tracking to address major knowledge gaps in male turtle ecology.

Ghana Instinct (Ghana)

The organization will strengthen conservation at Cape Three Points through enhanced beach patrols, reduced poaching, and improved hatchery capacity to protect olive ridley, green, and leatherback turtles.

© Community Unification for Responsible Management of Aquatic Resources (CURMA)

Institut Halieutique et des Sciences Marines, University of Toliara (Madagascar)

Researchers will identify which sea turtle species are captured in small-scale fisheries in southwest Madagascar to improve understanding of species-specific risk and feeding ecology. Findings will be used to guide locally adapted conservation strategies.

Murdoch University (Australia)

Researchers from Murdoch University will strengthen culturally grounded green turtle monitoring in Yawuru Saltwater Country by creating hands-on opportunities for Yawuru leadership, knowledge sharing, and stewardship alongside Western scientific approaches.

Society for Marine Species Conservation (Liberia)

The project will reduce poaching, bycatch, and pollution threats by strengthening nesting beach protection, fostering community stewardship, and supporting sustainable livelihoods that reduce pressure on sea turtle populations in Rivercess County.

© Institut Halieutique et des Sciences Marines, University of Toliara

Somali Integrated Fisheries Organization (Somalia)

The organization will develop sea turtle conservation along Somalia’s coastline by establishing monitoring programs, promoting community engagement, and encouraging Somalia’s integration into global conservation efforts.

Teal Guetschow (Trinidad)

Researcher Teal Guetschow will evaluate LED net lights as a bycatch reduction tool for artisanal gillnet fisheries in Trinidad and Tobago. The goal is to help address high levels of leatherback bycatch near important leatherback nesting beaches.

Turtle Foundation (Cabo Verde)

The foundation will strengthen nest protection and enforcement measures on Boa Vista Island—a nesting site for many of Cabo Verde’s loggerheads—by implementing enhanced field capacity, protection dogs, and tools such as drones.

AZA-SAFE GRANT RECIPIENTS

Since 2019, SWOT has partnered with the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) and its Sea Turtle SAFE (Saving Animals from Extinction) program to make annual grants for projects that support two of the top global priorities for sea turtle conservation—eastern Pacific leatherbacks and Kemp’s ridley turtles.

Brenda Sarahi Ramos-Rivera (Mexico)

This doctoral candidate will continue to support the protection of Kemp’s ridley nesting beaches in the Playa Piedra de Tlacoyunque Sanctuary through monitoring patrols, threat reduction, and organized beach cleanups.

Proyecto Tortuga Negra (Mexico)

At Mexiquillo, a major eastern Pacific leatherback nesting beach, Carlos Delgado-Trejo will ensure the continuation of nesting beach protection and successful hatchling emergence and release.

Corporación Yemanyá Agua y Conservación (Ecuador)

The organization will expand its outreach to artisanal fishing communities in Esmeraldas and Manabí to improve conservation awareness and to promote behaviors that reduce impacts to eastern Pacific leatherbacks affected by fishing activities.

Campamento Tortuguero los Quelonios (Mexico)

This conservation camp in Playa Ventura will address the threat of rising temperatures and work to strengthen hatchery-based management to sustain and build on two decades of reproductive success.

Fundación de la Universidad Veracruzana (Mexico)

Artificial light pollution is affecting Kemp’s ridleys at El Laurel. University representatives will work with community members to identify, mitigate, and manage problematic lighting while improving nest protection and monitoring.

Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory Inc. (U.S.A.)

This group’s rescue and rehabilitation of stranded sea turtles, including cold-stunned Kemp’s ridleys, will continue to inspire sea turtle conservation and strengthen response and medical care capacity in western Florida.

Irlanda Esmeralda Gallardo Alanis, George Mason University (Mexico)

This doctoral student will expand her long-term biological monitoring of Kemp’s ridley and hawksbill turtles to strengthen the conservation discussion and data collection for these species and their habitats in Tamaulipas, Mexico, and in southern Texas, U.S.A.

Mildred Alpizar Quezada, Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Mexico)

This biologist will protect nests and improve hatch success by addressing egg take and trade networks at three leatherback index beaches: Barra de la Cruz-Playa Grande and Cahuitan, Oaxaca and Tierra Colorada, Guerrero.

Verdiazul (Costa Rica)

The group will continue nest protection measures and hatchery management to support reproductive success at Playa Junquillal, an important eastern Pacific leatherback nesting beach.

Warriors of the Rainbow (Mexico)

Members will support nightly patrols, nest relocation, hatchery management, beach cleanups, and volunteer engagement to ensure protection of eastern Pacific leatherbacks in Guerrero, Mexico.

This article originally appeared in SWOT Report, vol. 21 (2026). Download the full report as a PDF.

Acting Globally: SWOT Small Grants 2025