In an attempt to harness Central Americans’ soccer passion for conservation purposes, a group of sea turtle researchers developed the Hawksbill Cup as a tool to shift the way coastal residents view hawksbills.

Sea turtles, like all other organisms in the natural world, carry invisible records of their biological history. Researchers simply need to know where and how to look for these records. Stable isotopes are among a growing number of intrinsic markers biologists use to extract information about organisms’ environments without having to observe their actions directly.

Coastal gillnet fisheries are some of the most common fisheries throughout the world, and they play an important role in the food security, economics, and culture of coastal communities. Yet gillnet fisheries are often problematic because of their nonselective impact on the marine environment; they incidentally capture many nontarget species.

The very word innovation excites some people and simultaneously imparts fear of the unknown in others. Throughout history, innovators have constantly been met with resistance, but those who innovate ultimately achieve success far beyond the dreams of others, and they set the stage for worldwide changes. Innovation is the future, and without it our lives would not be what they are today. The same is true for sea turtle conservation.

Green turtles are among the most iconic species in the Hawaiian Islands, and they have been the subject of scientific study for more than four decades. Extensive research on the Hawaiian green turtle population has enabled us to observe changes in Hawaiian green turtle nesting distribution that may suggest the foundation of a new, distinct nesting population, thus offering a unique learning opportunity.

Before 2000, there had been only a single published account of sea turtle nesting in Peru. The prevailing notion was that Peru is too far south—too cold—for successful sea turtle nesting. Thanks to the efforts of ecOceanica, we now know that nesting seems to be on the rise along Peru’s coast.

On St. Catherines Island, Georgia (U.S.A.), three geologists involved in sea turtle conservation—have been documenting the deterioration of sea turtle nesting habitat caused by sea-level rise since 1998. The extreme shoreline changes on St. Catherines Island produce difficult conditions for nesting loggerhead sea turtles and challenge conservation efforts; however, these conditions also create an opportunity to develop, evaluate, and optimize conservation methods on this sentinel island.

Change is nothing new to sea turtles. They have inhabited the Earth for many millions of years, persisting and evolving through the continuous changes in distribution of land and sea, climate, ocean currents, and sea level that have defined their world. First appearing in the fossil record 110 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous, sea turtles have shown remarkable resilience in adapting to environmental changes throughout their history.

The Ulithi Marine Turtle Program is a community conservation project based in Ulithi Atoll, located 115 miles northeast of Yap, Federated States of Micronesia. Green and hawksbill turtles forage and nest here, and play an important part of the local culture, revered by the Ulithian people and carefully managed to this day by tribal law and age-old tradition.