A team visited Manchioneel Bay at Cooper Island on Sunday to tag turtles in observance of World Sea Turtle Day, according to the Association of Reef Keepers.
The work continues an ongoing collaboration between ARK and the Ministry of Natural Resources, Labour and Immigration.
World Sea Turtle Day is observed on the birthday of Dr. Archie Carr, a conservationist whose work in Costa Rica, which began in the 1950s, led his successors to dub him the “grandfather of sea turtle research,” according to ARK.
Dr. Carr’s work illuminated the life cycles of sea turtles and brought attention to the decline in their populations today.
Besides the ministry, ARK celebrates the day in the VI along with the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Network; the World Wildlife Federation; and The Sea Turtle Conservancy, among other organisations dedicated to sea turtle research and conservation.
ARK continues Dr. Carr’s research through turtle tagging that started in the late 1990s with nesting leatherbacks under the government’s then Environment and Climate Change Unit. Since 2002, the organisation has been working with the ministry and other partners to tag foraging green and hawksbill turtles.