On June 17, a team of marine scientists returned to the Bay Islands of Honduras to continue studying one of the ocean’s best-loved representatives.

Stephen Dunbar, Ph.D., professor of biology in the School of Science and Technology at Loma Linda University, heads the team that is based at the Reef House Resort in Oak Ridge, Roatan, where they are monitoring and tracking sea turtles until mid-September. Dunbar is accompanied by first-year graduate student Melissa Berube.

Known locally as “Señor Tortuga,” Dunbar has been working with Larry and Carol Stevenson, and Barry and Ashley Kennewell, owners of the Reef House Resort, since November 2005 to establish a turtle conservation program on the island. As a result of their efforts, the group, along with marine data modeler Joe Breman and LLU nursing professor Sabine Dunbar, has developed the Protective Turtle Ecology Center for Training, Outreach and Research, Inc. (ProTECTOR), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the study and conservation of marine turtles in Honduras.

As president of ProTECTOR, Dunbar says, “We know almost nothing about the sea turtles of Honduras, despite the fact that the Bay Islands have historically been a major nesting site for critically endangered hawksbills and an area where green sea turtles were once very abundant.”

Some sources estimate that populations of hawksbills throughout the Caribbean have declined from more than 11 million to less than 30,000 individuals. “There are so many threats to their survival. If we don’t work quickly and don’t get help from local communities, we could see this important and beautiful species disappear in the very near future! That’s why we’ve started the Turtle Awareness and Protections Studies (TAPS) in the Bay Islands,” Dunbar states.

Threats include marine pollution, entanglement in nets, and the loss of nesting beach habitat. “But, some of the biggest threats,” explains Dunbar, “are the taking of turtles from their local feeding grounds, and the taking of eggs and females during the nesting season. These activities really devastate the population.”

The research team has recently received funding from a division of Conservation International to establish a series of workshops. “One of our major goals is to work with local fishermen on Roatan to discuss and develop ways for them to become involved in the benefits of sea turtle conservation. We believe that there really can be a ‘win-win’ situation for local communities and the turtles,” says Dunbar.

During this expedition, Dunbar and Berube are attaching radio transmitters to 10 juvenile turtles and tracking them each day. In addition to gathering data on where these young turtles are spending their first several years of life, the team is also collecting information on the turtles’ diets and what other organisms are regularly living on or with the turtles as they go about their daily activities. As well, the team plans to confirm and begin mapping beaches where turtles are coming to nest.