Capacitation Course for Sea Turtle Camps in the State of Guerrero

Capacitation Course for Sea Turtle Camps in the State of Guerrero

By: Antonina Selezneva

At La Tortuga Viva no two days are the same, but last Monday was yet more special. We got an exciting opportunity to get out of our daily routine and travel to a nearby town of Puerte Vicente for a full day capacitation for sea turtle camps of the state of Guerrero! The eight of us who could make it that day set out early morning, leaving Juluchuca at 7 a.m., getting a ride in the truck of one of the local volunteers Mario. Upon arrival we found ourselves on the territory of a college CETMAR 27, which was located on a gorgeous piece of land right on the beach. The college even had its own sea turtle camp! Upon arrival we got registered and given our name tags. We arrived quite early, so waited for everyone else to get there, while sipping on our coffee and enjoying the beautiful views and a lovely chat. One of my personal favourite parts of events such as this is getting a chance to spend time with your team members outside of work, which is a great opportunity to get to know each other better and is always great fun!

Besides allowing us to spend quality time as a team, these events are also great for getting to know other people in your field, and those working in different fields but still dedicated to the same cause, in our case sea turtle conservation! Talking to the organisers and all the volunteers helping in the event we found out that they were expecting almost 100 participants, which included students, representatives of governmental bodies and the tourism sector, among fellow tortugueros and volunteers of other sea turtle camps. This gave us a great opportunity to network, create connections, and find people to join forces with so we can increase our efforts and achieve greater things together. 

Once the majority of the participants arrived, we all took our seats and were able to begin with the main objective of our trip – learning! The lectures varied from general sea turtle biology and conservation practices to talks by different governmental bodies that are in one way or other, involved in the subject of sea turtle conservation. It was great to refresh a lot of the knowledge that we already had, as well as to learn many things! For example, conservation work is complicated from the legal side. There are different types of permits that an organization needs, each with their own sets of requirements. There are also strict rules about how the work has to be implemented, and every activity, be it the transportation of eggs or hatchery construction is tightly regulated. In addition, all of the sea turtle species are endangered, so have a higher level of regulation and protection by the Mexican law, with any manipulation of sea turtles (adults, hatchlings and eggs) or their products and subproducts (such as meat, skin, bones or any objects made from them) without the appropriate permits being strictly prohibited and punished by fines, imprisonment and/or long hours of community work! So, it was an amazingly useful to learn the ins and outs of the legal sides of working with sea turtles straight from the governmental bodies responsible for their implementation. What made it even more interesting is that many participants had questions and comments, starting discussions on very important topics that were based on real life situations experienced by people working in the field. 

In-between and after the lectures, we got a chance to mix with all the participants, share our experiences, and take each other’s contact details. So many amazing places and sea turtle camps to visit! In the end, after a long day of learning, meeting people, and overall having a lovely time, we left tired but with a heart full of inspiration and love for the work that we do and the amazing community that all share the same passion and determination to help save the beautiful animals that are sea turtles!