Sea Turtle Hatchery & Head-Starting Programs

The plight of the sea turtle is in need of active measures in order to restore local populations and bring many species back from the brink of extinction. Such dire circumstances have forced conservationist to look at ways to intervene in the life cycle and reproduction processes of sea turtles in order to help. On the surface you could argue that these methods don’t solve the route cause of the population decline, however during this course we hope to demonstrate the ways in which they can promote local stewardship, responsible tourism and alter the ways humans interact with our oceans.

Local interventions and mitigation measures have shown to be successful in maintaining and restoring populations in many locations around the globe. In this course, participants will learn about sea turtle conservation strategies and participate in locally-run programs aimed to protect and even increase local populations. Depending on the location, this may include hatchery, head-starting, rehabilitation, and release programs.

Conservation Diver presents the best way to approach both Hatchery management and Head-starting programs. If done in the correct manner and backed by scientific research we believe that both methods can bring about positive change, however please note that there are number of low cost, tourism driven programs that we do not support or promote.

This course does not cover general sea turtle ecology, evolution, traits or species identification. This was covered in the Sea Turtle Ecology & Monitoring course. The e-learning of that course must be completed before you progress with this course.