Rodney Lewis

Beach Ambassadors Laurie Reichenbach has picked up trash as she walks South Walton’s beaches ever since before she even moved here. One day in late spring she posted on Facebook asking if there was any interest in forming a beach ambassador group to help educate visitors about beach matters. Her idea was simple: she and a group of interested volunteers would simply wear T-shirts with […]

Australian government considering greater regulation of Indigenous hunting The Australian Prime Minister has asked the environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, to investigate serious complaints that vulnerable and endangered animals are being subjected to great cruelty by some Indigenous families and killed merely for commercial purposes, not cultural purposes. Frydenberg has accepted Turnbull’s request to investigate the matter. “I’m an absolute supporter of native title rights for

Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia, saving river terrapins The Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia has helped save thousands of eggs and facilitated the release of thousands of hatchlings into Terengganu rivers. Chen Peif Nyok, said that they have managed to save 2,491 turtle eggs and released 1,302 hatchlings into the Setiu River between 2004 and 2014, and another 3,754 eggs and 2,401 hatchlings into the

USDA Releases Two-Year Strategy to Help Gopher Tortoise The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Thursday released a new two-year implementation strategy to help restore, enhance and protect longleaf pine forests in the Southeast, part of an ongoing effort to help the gopher tortoise rebound and combat the need for additional regulation of the species. Click the link to read more and download the pdf

Protecting sea turtles on Côn Đảo Islands Every year, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature cooperates with Côn Đảo National Park to launch a Marine Turtle Conservation volunteer programme, aiming to promote community-based conservation of sea turtles and their habitats. 12 fortunate applicants become members for the programme and are assigned to the three big islands of Bảy Cạnh, Tre Lớn and Cau

Turtle Survival Center “live, breathe and sleep turtles 24/7” Pampering rare and endangered turtles is all in a day’s work at the facility operated by the nonprofit Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA). The Turtle Survival Center specializes in breeding species native to Southeast Asia. Turtles in that region have been especially hard hit since the 1980s, when China’s currency became convertible, causing demand for meat and

The Astrochelys yniphora’s countdown to extinction For millions of years, the ploughshare tortoise (Astrochelys yniphora) has borne witness to the history of its only home on the planet but this year has been the worst in history for the ploughshare (also called the angonoka tortoise), which is Madagascar’s largest tortoise and significant to the country’s natural heritage. Click the link to read more… Turtle News

Asia’s animal trafficking network crime family The main story for today is not specifically chelonian related but I’m sure will still be of interest to our readers. The UK Guardian newspaper on Monday posted an article detailing the trafficking network headed by the Bach brothers who are based in Vietnam and Thailand and are responsible for smuggling thousands of tonnes of elephant ivory, rhino horn

Turkey’s sea turtle nesting beaches still need better protection The MEDASSET (Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles) campaigns to improve the protection of loggerhead nesting beaches in Patara and to halt severe degradation in Fethiye, both listed as protected areas under the Barcelona Convention, continued in 2016. They assessed the sites in July and submitted the reports to the Bern Convention. Sadly, the majority