Blanquita Turbi

Understanding the effects of climate change on Caribbean hawksbill turtles: satellite tracking hawksbill migrations

A project of WWF.

click map for full-size version

Full-Size Map (25KB)
Zoom Map (20KB)
Animated Map (365KB)

Species: Hawksbill
Life Stage: Adult
Gender: Female
Release Date: 2008-09-30 23:57:00
Release Location: Canto de la playa, Saona Island, Dominican Republic
Last Location: 2010-06-05 02:38:34

Background

We have named this turtle "Blanquita Turb�" in honour of our most experienced sea turtle field assistant, Bienvenido P�rez Turb� (aka Blanco). Blanco lives in El Cajuil, by the edge of Oviedo Lagoon in Pedernales Province, where he is a senior park ranger of Jaragua National Park. Since the 1980s, Blanco, first under the direction of Jos� Ottwenwalder, started sea turtle nest monitoring and protection activities in the beaches located in the ocean side of Laguna de Oviedo, where hawksbill, green and particularly leatherback turtles nest. Due to high predation by humans, Blanco carefully collects and incubates sea turtle nests in his home and is one of the most trustworthy and knowledgeable persons about sea turtles in the country. He enjoys the respect of all, and his participation and dedication has been key to the success of our project since the beginning. Its an honour for us to be able to work with this living legend in Dominican sea turtle research.