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Pro Peninsula
Our beneficiary for the competition is Pro Peninsula, a
conservation organization dedicated to empowering communities
in Baja California, Mexico to protect and preserve their
environment. Pro Peninsula is the coordinating body for the
Grupo Tortuguero, or Sea Turtle Conservation Network, and
through this program works to identify local marine
conservation leaders and to support their conservation efforts
on a local and regional level.
The Grupo Tortuguero is an integral part of the effort to
protect the sea turtle population that ranges from the Baja
coast throughout the Pacific Ocean. The Grupo Tortuguero
monitors sea turtle populations and, through satellite
tracking, plots the movement of individual turtles to nesting
areas as far a field as Japan.
Since 1998, Underwater Images has been able to donate
over
$14,000 to Grupo Tortuguero’s scholarship programs. Almost a
dozen Mexican fishermen have benefited from these scholarships
to national and international sea turtle symposiums. They
include Adan Hernandez, who has been nominated as Time
magazine's conservationist of the year.
Without these scholarships, local conservationists are unable
to attend important seminars like this. At a sea turtle
seminar, they meet others like themselves, see the latest data
on sea turtle declines, make connections with biologists and
conservationists from around the world, and learn conservation
techniques. They come back to their communities inspired to
continue their work. Returned fishermen have been able to save
hundreds of turtles and-more important-to begin to change
local attitudes to support turtle conservation.
We urge you to join our efforts to support marine conservation
and education.
For more information about Grupo Tortuguero
and Pro Peninsula, please visit these sites:
The Grupo Tortuguero web page
www.grupotortuguero.org
The Pro Peninsula web page
www.propeninsula.org
The www.seaturtle.org
web page.
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