Bermuda Turtle Project – The Atlantic Conservation Partnership

Bermuda was once home to a large population of nesting and foraging adult green turtles. In spite of legislation adopted in 1620 to protect small juveniles turtles from consumption, the adult green turtle population was so reduced by hunting pressure that a commercial harvest was no longer profitable by the end of the 1700’s. The conservation law failed to halt the consumption of the breeding colony and as a result there had been no evidence of green turtles nesting in Bermuda since 1870. Today the shallow reefs and sea grass meadows of the Bermuda Platform still provide foraging grounds for young hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas) born elsewhere.

The beginnings of the Bermuda Turtle Project are closely intertwined with Dr. Archie Carr, the man who pioneered the global movement to study and protect sea turtles. Dr. Carr and Dr. Henry Clay Frick, who had a residence in Bermuda, set their eyes on Bermuda to be part of Operation Green Turtle, a Caribbean-wide effort led to restore green turtle populations. The Caribbean Conservation Corporation is world’s oldest sea turtle conservation group and is now known as the Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC).

In 1968, in partnership with the Bermuda Government, Dr. Carr and Dr. Frick transported 25-30,000 eggs from Costa Rica and Surinam to Bermuda with a hope to reintroduce a nesting colony. The experiment resulted in 16,000 hatchlings emerging on local beaches and naturally finding their way to sea. They also launched the Bermuda Turtle Project (BTP) capture-mark-recapture program, making BTP one of the longest, continuous research and conservation program focused on sea turtles in their marine environment.

One of the first scientific investigations of this species in their juvenile developmental habitat, the BTP continues today as a joint effort between the Sea Turtle Conservatory and the Bermuda Zoological Society (BZS). With a mission to conserve sea turtles through research and education, the BTP focuses its research to provide new insights into the life history of sea turtles at a specific stage of their life cycle – the benthic developmental stage in which juvenile turtles grow from the size of a dinner plate to nearly adult size. Over 5,000 green turtles have been captured, tagged and released, and the data has provided understanding of size frequencies, sex ratios, growth rates, genetic affinities, habitat preferences, as well as migratory routes on and from the island. Turtles tagged in Bermuda have been recovered in Cuba, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Lucia, Venezuela and the U.S.A. The BTP also collaborates with the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre at the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo to treat sick and injured sea turtles.

BTP provides a 2-week in-water conservation course taught annually at BZS that builds regional capacity for the management of endangered sea turtles by providing training to university students, biologists, conservation officers and resource managers from countries throughout the Western Atlantic/Caribbean region. Since 1997 the course has welcomed participants from over 40 different jurisdictions. More information on the course and application can be found here https://bermudaturtleproject.org