Turtles Build Town

March 2, 2008
Ethnomusicology M-Term

Today we visited Project TAMAR at Praia do Forte. Created in 1980, TAMAR was a project set up to preserve the the threatend sea turtle population. The project helps to conserve the sea turtle population by monitoring the sea turtle nests during the icubation period and then when the babies turtles hatch they are insured safe transport to the sea. The species we observed in the rehabilitaion tanks at Praia do Forte were Olive Ridleys and Green Sea Turtles but the project is regular visited by Hawks Bill, Leather Back and Logger Head turtles.
Due to the fact that pregnant female turtles return to the same beach every year to bury there eggs in the sand, it has become a thriving tourist destination. This benefits both the local community, by bringing in money and the turtles by ensuring that more survive and educating the public about there suroundings.

By Tucker Marder