Since 2006, SWOT’s small grants have helped field-based partners around the world to realize an array of important research and conservation goals. To date, 141 grants have been awarded to 116 applicants in more than 56 countries and territories for work addressing three key themes: (1) networking and capacity building, (2) science, and (3) education and outreach. The following are brief overviews of SWOT’s 2022 grantees. Visit www.SeaTurtleStatus.org/grants for application instructions and a list of all past SWOT grantees.

Environmental Awareness Group (EAG)–Antigua and Barbuda

EAG has been committed to preserving Antigua and Barbuda’s environment and to promoting the sustainable use and management of natural resources since 1989. In 2022 and 2023, teams of researchers will continue to monitor sea turtle nesting on 10 beaches in Antigua to ensure an accurate baseline for elaborating sea turtle population trends, to document and understand threats, and to identify priority areas for conservation attention.

Osa Conservation–Costa Rica

To combat the negative impact of plastic pollution, Osa Conservation will use plastic found during beach cleanups to create light covers that will be given to coastal hotels and restaurants, to hold workshops about proper waste management of plastics, and to train and equip local women to create and sell jewelry made from plastic bottle caps collected during beach cleanups.

Daniela Font—Argentina

By conducting outreach and structured interviews, Daniela Font will deepen ties and foster collaboration between conservationists and fishers. Her work aims to create a deeper understanding of temporal and spatial variations in sea turtle bycatch in Argentine waters. Those efforts will mitigate adverse impacts, generate data to predict and avoid bycatch, and elevate participants’ awareness and willingness to adopt solutions.

West Africa Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WASTCON)—West Africa

WASTCON will mobilize experts to develop training materials that will prepare its members to conduct sea turtle fieldwork. The network will organize and host a three-day training workshop about sea turtle protection and conservation techniques for its member institutions in order to ensure the standardized use of best practices in data collection for sea turtle monitoring in the region.

Bahari Hai Conservation—Kenya

Bahari Hai Conservation works with an array of stakeholders to address complex challenges and to support an environmentally conscious community that is actively engaged in protecting the oceans. Bahari Hai Conservation will conduct capacity-building workshops with two sea turtle conservation groups on Kenya’s northern coast to improve the quality and consistency of data collection, to better inform researchers, and to help them respond to top conservation priorities.

The Time + Tide Foundation—Madagascar

The Time + Tide Foundation will conduct several training sessions for community conservationists in six fishing villages on the island of Nosy Ankao and the adjacent mainland coast of Madagascar to assist conservationists in the protection of sea turtle nesting sites and to encourage them to use techniques that reduce the threats to sea turtles posed by local fishing methods.

ProOcean Marine Research, Conservation & Innovation—Venezuela

Dedicated to restoring and conserving marine and coastal biodiversity using innovative tools, research, capacity building, and stakeholder participation, ProOcean will use its SWOT grant to monitor green and hawksbill nesting and threats at the principal nesting beaches in Los Roques Archipelago National Park, Venezuela, with the long-term goal of developing strategies for permanent sea turtle protection and recovery

AZA-SAFE GRANT RECIPIENTS

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and its Sea Turtle SAFE (Saving Animals from Extinction) program have partnered with SWOT since 2019 to disburse targeted grants for projects relating to the conservation of two of the top global priorities for sea turtle conservation: eastern Pacific leatherbacks and Kemp’s ridleys. Following are brief overviews of the 2022 grants recipients:

Adriana Lechuga Granados—Mexico

To better understand the population status of greens, hawksbills, olive ridleys, and leatherbacks that nest on an important yet poorly studied 5-kilometer stretch of beach in the Mexican state of Guerrero, Adriana Lechuga Granados will conduct a basic survey of monitoring and research of incubation conditions.

Sea Turtle Recovery—U.S.A.

To help Kemp’s ridleys that face the threat of cold stunning in New Jersey, Sea Turtle Recovery will employ and train assistants to aid in the location and transportation of cold-stunned sea turtles to facilities where they can be rescued, resuscitated, and returned to the wild.

César Arroyo Vega—Mexico

The state of Guerrero on the Mexican Pacific coast is a priority for the protection of four species of turtles, including eastern Pacific leatherbacks. César Arroyo Vega’s SWOT grant will be used to strengthen training programs, information sharing, and networking among Guerrero’s turtle conservationists and researchers.

César Paúl Ley-Quiñónez—Mexico

To facilitate the effective, long-term monitoring of sea turtle health and the presence and severity of potentially dangerous diseases in the Kemp's ridley population, César Paúl Ley-Quiñónez will use his SWOT grant to conduct research to develop baseline blood biochemical reference values for the species.

Campamento Tortuguero Ayotlcalli A.C.—Mexico

This established turtle camp will organize several outreach and education workshops with local communities in the state of Guerrero to engage schoolchildren, fishermen, tourist service providers, and visitors in hands-on efforts to build a culture of turtle protection as the community develops and grows.

Barreros de San Luis A.C.—Mexico

A community organization that was originally pioneered by local fishermen, Barreros de San Luis will continue to build its sea turtle conservation activities, including the monitoring of 11.5 kilometers (over 7 miles) of nesting beach, hatchery construction, and morphometrics research, as well as the promotion of citizen participation in conservation activities.

Sea Turtle, Inc.—U.S.A.

Sea turtle, Inc., will invite disabled individuals from the Rio Grande Valley area to enjoy an evening on South Padre learning about turtles, meeting the animals face-to-face, and appreciating the importance of the region and its commitment to the protection of Kemp’s ridley turtles.

GroBios A.C.—Mexico

GroBios A.C. will connect with and convene multiple community stakeholders, including about 30 sea turtle conservation projects working in Guerrero, to develop a shared strategy for the monitoring and protection of the nesting beaches used by the native species of turtle, including eastern Pacific leatherbacks.

New York Marine Rescue Center (NYMRC)—U.S.A.

To decrease sea turtle injuries and mortality from vessel strikes and to improve the reporting of boater–sea turtle interactions, the NYMRC will post educational signage and will launch a statewide series of informative lectures directed at the fishing and boating community of New York.

Patricia Huerta Rodríguez—Mexico

Patricia Huerta Rodríguez will continue ongoing work to collect identification photos for a mark-recapture program and to create a database that will allow researchers to better analyze the long-term population dynamics of the green, hawksbill, and Kemp’s ridley turtles that nest on Isla Aguada, Mexico.

Gladys Porter Zoo and Rancho San José—Mexico

In support of the Mexico and U.S.A. binational program in Tamaulipas, Mexico, SWOT funds will help to expand tagging on two major Kemp’s ridley nesting beaches—La Pesca and Tepehuajes—with state-of-the-art tags and tagging protocols to generate data needed to determine a variety of population trends.

This article originally appeared in SWOT Report, vol. 18 (2023). Click here to download the complete article as a PDF.