Sea Turtle Conservation in Mexico

If you have a strong interest in marine life conservation, and you want an adventurous experience outdoors, this is the project for you. You’ll spend your days patrolling black sand beaches, searching for turtle nests, and carefully transporting eggs to a more protected areas. You’ll release hatchlings, and watch them crawl over the sand to the ocean. You’ll sail slowly around a lagoon, taking notes about the different animals and birds you see for scientists.

The work we do here is important, and you’ll become part of ongoing efforts to protect marine and coastal life. You’ll do plenty of hands-on work outdoors, and learn a lot from our conservation experts. This is really useful if you’re planning on pursuing a career in wildlife conservation someday. It’s also a good fit if you’re passionate about the environment and actively want to help.

You’ll also have the chance to hone personal skills like communication and adapting to a different environment. You can apply these skills to any career you pursue.

You don’t need previous experience to join. You’ll be supervised by experts, and Projects Abroad staff are always available to provide guidance and advice.

Our Sea Turtle Conservation Project runs year-round, so you can join whenever it suits your schedule. The minimum duration is one week, but we recommend staying longer to experience as much as possible.

You’ll work Monday through Friday, for about five hours a day.

Time on this project is split between work at the ecological centre, on the beach, and a nearby lagoon. At the ecological centre, you’ll focus on working with turtles, and do things like:

• Monitor nests in a protected corral
• Clean adult turtles and ensure they are well fed, and measured and weighed regularly.
• Patrol at night to search for new nests (you can expect to work on rotation for night patrols)

You’ll work at the crocodile centre once a week, on a Thursday. Here, you’ll collect biometric data and mark the crocodiles in nearby lagoons to track local populations.

There is plenty of time to relax. This is especially true during the hottest part of the day, when we stop working because of the heat from the midday sun.

During the hours you aren’t working, and over the weekends, you can explore and socialise with other volunteers. Be sure to enjoy the famous open-air palapa covered seafood restaurants around town!

The aim of our Sea Turtle Conservation Project is to ensure the survival of endangered sea turtle species, and preserve the ecological well-being of the area.

The endangered turtles we work with can only lay their eggs on the beach. Unfortunately, these nesting areas are disappearing rapidly. This is because of climate change and increased human development. Poachers also take the eggs to sell at local markets. This is why we are working to protect as many of these nests as possible.

We work with several endangered turtle breeds in Mexico. These include:

• Green sea turtles
• Olive Ridley sea turtles
• Leatherback sea turtles

Leatherback turtles are critically endangered, and statistics about the leatherback turtle are especially frightening. There are only 2,300 female adult Pacific Leatherback turtles left in the wild!

In addition to protecting turtles, we’re helping with coastal conservation. We monitor the wildlife population, and collect scientific data for scientists and the local government. We’re also working to address coastal erosion by growing and planting mangroves. Not only do mangroves protect coastlines from soil erosion, they also provide a habitat for marine life, and help in the fight against climate change.

Join our Sea Turtle Conservation Project and become part of our long-term efforts to protect Mexico’s marine life.