Jiquilisco Bay Biosphere Reserve Turtle Rodeo Capture Tour
San Salvador, El Salvador
Trip Type: Eco Tours
Duration: 8 hours
Ready for a hands-on exploration by participating in a long-term population study for endangered sea turtles? On this unique experience, you will spend a full day with researchers helping to better understand and protect sea turtles from Bahia Jiquilisco Biosphere Reserve. By joining this trip, you will be directly supporting community-based conservation of these turtles by providing alternative income to poaching and generating funds to expand their efforts. You will capture, measure, tag, release and learn first-hand about these endangered turtles, all while enjoying one of the most beautiful parts of the country.
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Ready for a hands-on exploration by participating in a long-term population study for endangered sea turtles? On this unique experience, you will spend a full day with researchers helping to better understand and protect sea turtles from Bahia Jiquilisco Biosphere Reserve. By joining this trip, you will be directly supporting community-based conservation of these turtles by providing alternative income to poaching and generating funds to expand their efforts. You will capture, measure, tag, release and learn first-hand about these endangered turtles, all while enjoying one of the most beautiful parts of the country.
Learn more about sea turtles in El Salvador, being part of important scientific researches and helping preservation through the tourism.
Four of seven species of sea turtles nest in El Salvador: Ridley, Baule, Carey and Prieta. These last two species do not just come to nest at the beaches in Jiquilisco Bay, ( Biosphere reserve and RAMSAR site, categories that has held since 2007 and 2005 respectively), they also come because they feed and even develop a big part of their lifecycle in the area.
ICAPO is the institution in charge of this work, and has been watching for many years the turtles population behavior in the bay, and it has been discovered that Prieta turtle specie (Chelonia Mydas Agazzissi) like feed on sea grass during the high tide. Carey turtle specie (Eretmochelys imbricata) feed on mangrove roots and sponges that grew in the sea , they also feed on shellfishes during the low tides.
Through aquatic monitoring with the help of biologists and veterinarians, it has been started a local turtle population census: male, female and young turtles, resident or visitant specimens, weight, size and DNA sample.
This amazing experience will let you to have the possibility to watch sea turtles in their natural environment and be a very close up witness of a progressive scientific work with these beautiful and wonderful wild animals or even help biologists with the task. Sailing with these experimented investigators in the sea turtles area, you would see how two local fishermen catch the sea turtles in special designed nets for no to hurt them. When sea turtles are on board, investigators team starts with the measurement process, weight, sampling and tagged of turtles.
All of this will be realized in the middle of the beautiful scenery of Jiquilisco bay, surrounded of the most important mangrove forest in El Salvador and one of the most important in Central America, framed by a volcanic ridge on the horizon.
Four of seven species of sea turtles nest in El Salvador: Ridley, Baule, Carey and Prieta. These last two species do not just come to nest at the beaches in Jiquilisco Bay, ( Biosphere reserve and RAMSAR site, categories that has held since 2007 and 2005 respectively), they also come because they feed and even develop a big part of their lifecycle in the area.
ICAPO is the institution in charge of this work, and has been watching for many years the turtles population behavior in the bay, and it has been discovered that Prieta turtle specie (Chelonia Mydas Agazzissi) like feed on sea grass during the high tide. Carey turtle specie (Eretmochelys imbricata) feed on mangrove roots and sponges that grew in the sea , they also feed on shellfishes during the low tides.
Through aquatic monitoring with the help of biologists and veterinarians, it has been started a local turtle population census: male, female and young turtles, resident or visitant specimens, weight, size and DNA sample.
This amazing experience will let you to have the possibility to watch sea turtles in their natural environment and be a very close up witness of a progressive scientific work with these beautiful and wonderful wild animals or even help biologists with the task. Sailing with these experimented investigators in the sea turtles area, you would see how two local fishermen catch the sea turtles in special designed nets for no to hurt them. When sea turtles are on board, investigators team starts with the measurement process, weight, sampling and tagged of turtles.
All of this will be realized in the middle of the beautiful scenery of Jiquilisco bay, surrounded of the most important mangrove forest in El Salvador and one of the most important in Central America, framed by a volcanic ridge on the horizon.
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