A solitary species that rarely interacts with others outside of mating rituals, sea turtles struggle to survive from the day they hatch out of their egg. Sea turtle mortality rates are depressingly high, about 99% of juveniles will meet their demise before reaching sexual maturity. Dr. Mariana Fuentes is a marine conservation biologist at Florida State University and focuses her research on developing science-based solutions for the conservation and management of sea turtles. Her research group integrates field-based ecology with systematic conservation planning, decision theory approaches, climate modeling and applied qualitative and geographic spatial analysis to answer a series of ecological and management topics related to sea turtles.

10% of profits from your purchase will be donated to the FSU Marine Turtle Research, Ecology and Conservation Group, led by Dr. Mariana Fuentes, and will be used to fund two projects. The first initiative is to assess the effects that the recreational bay scallop fishery has on sea turtles in the Big Bend of Florida. Researchers will collect biological, ecological and spatial data on sea turtles in the region and use it to inform management practices to better protect these endangered species. The second is to increase night monitoring of St. George Island, Florida and to identify threats to turtles nesting there. The information gained will aid in identifying critical habitats and provide important information to better understand the size, nesting behaviors, and movements of sea turtles in the region.

All photographs were taken during research activities permitted by the National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.