The National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Supports Florida Gulf Coast University

In 2010, a group of 12 undergraduate students from FGCU participated in a Study Abroad program where they interviewed fishermen along Ghana’s coast. This research allowed us to discover many coastal communities consider it taboo to harm or even touch a sea turtle. The origin of this traditional protection is based on an oral story about sea turtles saving fishermen lost at sea during a storm. One of the undergraduate students became fascinated with this information and helped write a peer reviewed paper on the study – she was the primary author. Another student from a 2012 Study Abroad program helped publish a paper documenting loggerhead nesting activity in Ghana – a species that had not been seen in the region since the 1950s. FGCU students helped initiate a fishery observer program in Ghana to determine how many sea turtles are accidently killed as by-catch in the artisanal gill-net fishery. Over 12,000 gill-net fishing vessels operate in Ghana’s water and research indicates 4 sea turtles are killed per vessel each year. Olive ridley sea turtles are the most commonly captured, but these nets also kill a significant number of leatherback and green sea turtles.

In 2016, the lab initiated an experiment to test the effectiveness of using green LED lights to reduce sea turtle by-catch. Three years of data indicate green lights reduce sea turtle captures by 80% in Ghana’s gillnet fishery. Because of the taboo against harming sea turtles fishermen are excited to use the green lights. Dr. Allman is leading another Study Abroad program in 2020 and hopes to install lights on more fishing boats with a goal of having lights on all boats in two fishing communities (approximately 350 boats). Over 40 students at FGCU have participated in sea turtle research activities in Ghana, and many have continued conservation work through graduate research activities, Peace Corp, and even the US Fulbright program. Graduate students have also participated in sea turtle research activities in Ghana by exploring nesting patterns and population genetics among the species. We recently discovered that leatherback turtles are not only genetically similar to populations in Gabon and South Africa, but also to those of the Caribbean and US. An important study just completed in the lab provides genetic support for Archie Carr’s hypothesis that olive ridley sea turtles colonized the Atlantic Ocean from the Indian Ocean. Theses genetic studies helped the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group delineate sea turtle conservation management units as a tool of prioritizing conservation efforts where the most work is needed.