Discover, Plan & Go!

Each night, under swaying palms and bright tropical stars, your team will patrol sections of the beach with the staff and volunteers of the Nature Seekers. You may find as many as 150 sea turtles nesting each night in peak season. At every encounter, you will tag, measure, and even weigh these 400-kilogram (900-pound) turtles, as well as collect other data. You may also record green turtles and hawksbill turtles nesting here, and spy other wildlife in the forest lining the beach. After sleeping late in the mornings, you can spend your free afternoons visiting the howler monkeys in a nearby forest, swimming in the river, hiking the local trails, or bird watching. You will also enjoy getting to know the people of this friendly Caribbean island.

Leatherbacks, the largest of all turtles, arrive each year (March-August) to nest on the beaches of Trinidad. Activities conducted at Matura Beach by Nature Seekers with the support of Earthwatch Institute include nocturnal beach patrols, tagging of nesting turtles, collection of morphometric information, documentation of mortality sources, assessment of population trends and behavioral patterns, supervision of ecotourism, and education of the public. Other important research activities include satellite and radio tracking to determine inter-nesting and post-nesting movements, studying diving and foraging behavior, and investigating the sensory biology of the species.

The main role of Earthwatch volunteers is to enhance the monitoring of marine turtles by increasing the human resources on Matura Beach to carry out the conservation and research activities. This increase in patrol coverage is particularly important and needed to better estimate the population size and status of this nesting colony. Volunteers will work very closely with the turtles, tagging and measuring as well as recording other important data on each nesting female by covering specific zones along the beach. Earthwatch team members play a vital role in the collection of all data each night on the beach. On some nights this can be a challenging adventure as each pair of volunteers monitor nesting by as many as 10 turtles simultaneously! On other nights patience is the key as volunteers patrol the beach waiting for turtles to slide ashore to nest. At those times the opportunity to listen to the sounds of the jungle, look for spectacled caiman or fishing bats in the rivers behind the beach, or admire the Southern Cross in the stars can be appreciated.

Project staff, Earthwatch volunteers, and community representatives will participate jointly in all components of this project, including data collection and analysis, gear preparation and beach patrolling. Project staff will be with the volunteers throughout their time on Trinidad, which provides a rich opportunity to share knowledge and experiences. Volunteers will also have the opportunity to learn about the biology of leatherbacks through lectures and multimedia presentations.

As an Eons member, you'll get a free, 1 year membership to Earthwatch — a $35 value — when you sign up on any expedition. And members pay $100 less on their expedition contribution — so you save $135! Just put code EONS2007 in the comment field on the signup form, or, if you call, tell the Expedition Coordinator that you found us on Eons.

Earthwatch expedition-related costs may be tax-deductible in the US as volunteer expenses. Please check with your tax adviser.