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WildlifeSAIL North Atlantic Crossing and Caribbean


Date: 2003-02-15

WildlifeSAIL NEWS FLASH 15 February, 2003

Summary:

1. North Atlantic Crossing
2. Exploring Caribbean Habitats
3. Damage to Wildlife’s Starboard Diesel Engine
4. Hawksbill Sea Turtle Research in Nicaragua
5. Sea Turtle Sanctuary Visit in Bequia

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1. North Atlantic Crossing

"The smell of land is sweet!" Flo and I gaze at the looming distant shoreline that emerges in a velvet haze from the horizon. It is day 21 at sea and the WildlifeSAIL crew, 6 men strong, has sailed their catamaran, Wildlife, for 3800 nautical miles (4373 standard miles or 7038 kilometers) non-stop from Gibraltar, Europe, to Martinique, Caribbean Windward Islands. The date is 18 December, 2002.

For the WildlifeSAIL circumnavigation project the successful Atlantic Ocean crossing marks the first stage in its two and a half-year agenda around the world. Logs are live on www.wildlifesail.org, which also includes photo and video galleries that document our global expedition. Flo and I tell our adventure on the website as we experience it every day in the field.

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2. Exploring Caribbean Habitats

The beautiful Caribbean wildlife habitats that we are fortunate to explore allow us to document the fruits of wildlife conservation projects, as we travel through the Leeward and Windward Islands, to the Grenadines and Trinidad. The Wildlife catamaran’s shallow draft permits us to sail into territories otherwise limited to standard deep-draft keelboats.

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3. Damage to Wildlife’s Starboard Diesel Engine

The sudden damage to our starboard primary diesel engine has caused WildlifeSAIL to forfeit assisting Cynthia Lagueux in her "Hawksbill Sea Turtle Foraging Habitat Characterization" research project in Nicaragua. See www.wildlifesail.org logs and galleries for details on the challenging effort of extracting the 1000-pound engine from our sailboat.

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4. Hawksbill Sea Turtle Research in Nicaragua

WCS (The Wildlife Conservation Society) Scientist, Dr. Cynthia Lagueux, writes that Hawksbill sea turtles are among the most endangered sea turtle species, with all but a few populations severely depleted or in decline. In an effort to identify important foraging habitats and migratory routes of Hawksbills nesting in the Pearl Cays, Nicaragua, a satellite telemetry study of their movements was initiated in 2000, with the support of the National Marine Fisheries Service. To better understand the foraging habitat requirements of Hawksbills in Nicaragua, and possibly other Hawksbill populations in the Caribbean, a description of their foraging habitat is needed. This information will help us map potentially important Hawksbill habitats and identify areas that may need protection from alteration or destruction as a result of activities such as oil exploration and extraction. In July 2002, the president of Nicaragua approved oil exploration for the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, and this includes habitat that is among the most important in the Atlantic system for marine turtles. Thus, it is timely and urgent that we begin to better understand and describe these habitats in an effort to conserve these highly endangered marine turtles.

Dr. Lagueux and the WildlifeSAIL team had worked out a detailed collaborative agenda to conduct Hawksbill habitat characterization studies in which the Wildlife Catamaran was to act as the mobile research platform. Regretfully the catamaran could not be sailed to Nicaragua because of the above mentioned diesel engine failure leading to postponement of this research. For more information and questions on how to support WCS (The Wildlife Conservation Society) and Dr. Lagueux, please contact Becky Cerroni:

Rebecca Cerroni
Program Manager
Marine Conservation
WCS International
2300 Southern Boulevard
Bronx, NY 10460
phone 718.741.8199
fax 718.364.4275
rcerroni@wcs.org

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5. Sea Turtle Sanctuary Visit in Bequia

The Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary, located on the eastern side of Bequia Island, Grenadines, is run by Brother King. This gentleman collects Hawksbill sea turtle eggs and rears the hatchlings in his coastal sanctuary. His mission is to give the infant turtles a higher chance of survival by releasing them when they are old enough to fend for themselves. Biologists who we met in Martinique spoke very favorably of Brother King’s project. WildlifeSAIL will visit the sanctuary in the last week of February. We invite you to discover this local Bequia conservation effort with us on www.wildlifesail.org, as we document our findings in logs, as well as photo and video journals and interviews.

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For more information and to track the WildlifeSAIL science adventure, visit us on-line at www.wildlifesail.org, or email us at info@wildlifesail.org

With respect,
JF Thye, WildlifeSAIL Director






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