UPDATE! Thank you for your support! Kids have chosen a local turtle education / rescue place to give some of your donations! It’s called campamento tortuguero boca de tomates. To make direct donations to them you can PayPal nakawe.ac@gmail.com. Don’t forget to tell us if you’d like earrings or a bracelet! Hand deliver sometime during the next year would be ideal but shipping is a possibility. They are great conversation starters to help raise awareness.
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The kids made this video of four turtles that we encountered tangled in a fishing gear ball of trash. We were about 60 miles north of Punta Mita/Sayulita/La Cruz/Puerto Vallarta. We were able to remove the hooks and line from all turtles and they all seemed to be strong when they swam off. It took about 30 minutes to untangle them and thankfully the conditions were very calm and we just drifted with engines off while carefully dealing with the mess.
We believe they were Olive Ridley turtles. We saw many (~50?) this day swimming in the ocean as we motored past. I am learning that one of the challenges turtles are facing is that sea temperature is connected to if they are female or male and the warmer oceans is producing too many females for the populations to balanced appropriately.
Aurora, Coral, Forrest and Sierra are making some earrings and keychains out of the ball of hooks and line that we removed from the sea. We are planning to visit some local sea turtle sanctuary/ non-profits to learn more about these creatures and the kids hope to donate some of their savings and any profits from their creations to help support conservation efforts in the local area.
Mike and I were in a daze after the experience. It was thrilling to be helping these creatures in such a tangible and immediate way, yet we were saddened by the reality of how frequent this accident happens. We are grateful that the kids were able to participate and feel the euphoria of helping these innocent creatures. We hope that this video might inspire you to donate to your local organizations and seek opportunities to volunteer.
Meet the Millers 