Celebrate Conservation at the Lunada on July 25th! Cabo Pulmo: a Unique Natural Treasure Follow Pro Peninsula Online! Ocean Connectors Internship Opportunity Conservation Update: Proyecto ¡Carey!

On Saturday, July 25th at 6pm, Pro Peninsula supporters will come together to celebrate our many environmental achievements at a lovely private residence in La Jolla, CA. We hope you will join Pro Peninsula at our third annual Summer Lunada benefit in commemoration of the environmental conservation work that has been achieved by Pro Peninsula staff, community members, and volunteers throughout the San Diego and Baja California regions.

The Summer Lunada will feature gourmet cuisine, live music by local marvel Pooh and Deblois, cocktails, as well as thrilling silent and live auctions! Keep reading to get a taste of the exciting and unique items that will be up for bid at the Lunada…

• a custom-shaped Pro Peninsula-inspired surfboard by Ryan Howell of Sezio Surf, paired with private surfing lessons,
• beginner-intensive Freediving classes by Silicon Valley Freediver,
• amazing regional photographs by artists Scott Henderson and Patrick Love,
• spa and yoga retreats, handmade jewelry, luxurious yacht excursions…and more!

On June 6th, 2009, communities surrounding Cabo Pulmo National Park came together to celebrate the 9th anniversary of the Park's declaration. In a very special event, residents and visitors, young and old, united to throw an event truly worthy of one of Baja California Sur's natural gems. Throughout the day, Amigos para la Conservación de Cabo Pulmo (ACCP) engaged local youth in various arts and crafts activities using the natural world. CONANP, the National Parks Commission, also contributed to the event by providing an educational workshop on recycling.

Under the hot tropical sun, the community of Cabo Pulmo participated in a series of athletic events ranging from kayak races to volleyball, with local bragging rights determined by a tug o'war. No festival would be complete without live banda and, sure enough, as the sun went down, the music blared and dancing ensued!

Cabo Pulmo National Park is a unique treasure on the Baja California peninsula. Its coral reefs contribute to an abundance and diversity of species that stuns even the most experienced divers. As large scale development increasingly threatens to irrevocably alter Cabo Pulmo's desert landscape, and potentially harm the very coral reef that sustains the local economy, now is truly the time to celebrate Cabo Pulmo National Park. Help ACCP and local residents preserve this national treasure! Visit www.pulmoamigos.org and find out how you can help!

Pro Peninsula has now joined several social networking websites with the goal of keeping our supporters—just like you—informed about our environmental conservation work throughout the region. We are posting new and exciting information about our upcoming events and ways to get involved. We invite you to join Pro Peninsula on some of your favorite sites! Here are some sites we’ve joined that you’re probably familiar with… Facebook.com Eventful.com LinkedIn.com Twitter.com

Pro Peninsula has also joined some great networking sites that you may have never heard of…so be sure to check out:

• AngelBeing.com
• MTDN.com
• Digg.com
• ConecteEnBaja.com

The 2008-2009 academic year of Pro Peninsula’s Ocean Connectors program has come to a close and, once again, the project served as an inspiration to children and adults throughout the region. The Ocean Connectors program uses migratory marine species to teach low-income elementary students lessons in marine science, coastal conservation, global and cultural awareness, and habitat ecology. 2008 and 2009 were two monumental years of growth for the program, but 2010 will include even more activities to inspire and educate our youth! Next year, Ocean Connectors will reach a record-breaking 1,800 disadvantaged students living in San Diego, CA, La Paz and, for the first time, Laguna San Ignacio, Baja California Sur. Ocean Connectors will include a variety of new program additions including:

• A brand-new gray whale education program for underserved 4th graders living in San Diego and Laguna San Ignacio, featuring whale watching field trips in the San Diego Bay,
• “Community Presentations”, which will be offered on a first-come, first-serve basis to interested groups throughout the region,
• Collaborative marine science summer camp programs, and
• Fee-for-Service educational partnerships, which are open to any type of school in the area.

Could you be the next Ocean Connectors intern?

Proyecto ¡Carey! team with the hawksbill "Karen"

Last month, Proyecto ¡CAREY! began conducting research along the pacific coast of Mexico and Central America in an effort to save the eastern pacific hawksbill sea turtle from extinction. Beginning in Costa Rica, Proyecto ¡Carey! partnered with PRETOMA (the Sea Turtle Restoration Project) and ASOPECOY (the Coyote Artisanal Fisheries Association). This dedicated team conducted the first ever in-water monitoring activities using tangle nets along the pacific coast of Costa Rica. After only two hours, the group successfully captured a juvenile hawksbill sea turtle near Punta Coyote, which is just north of the Caletas-Ario National Wildlife Refuge. This monumental achievement provides important evidence of the continued presence of this species in the region, and demonstrates the need to increase research on behalf of saving these amazing creatures.

Following this great success in Costa Rica, Proyecto ¡CAREY! staff traveled to Nicaragua to continue studying this enigmatic hawksbill population. Equipped with two satellite tags provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), project personnel were optimistic that they would have the rare opportunity to deploy these devices on adult hawksbill sea turtles. However, given the extremely perilous state of this species in the eastern pacific region, there was no way to tell if such important opportunities would actually arise.

Paso Pacifico, a leading grassroots conservation organization in southwest Nicaragua that recently began documenting hawksbill nesting, joined Proyecto ¡CAREY!’s exploratory activities in the region. The Paso Pacifico field team, consisting of resource rangers and community guides, searched for weeks in an effort to encounter a nesting hawksbill turtle and thus enable the application of a satellite tag. In the wee morning hours of June 30th the team was ecstatic to finally locate a hawksbill sea turtle…but they were truly stunned when a second hawksbill turtle emerged on the same beach only a few hours later! Proyecto ¡CAREY! and Paso Pacifico, with the assistance of the local Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA) and the Nicaraguan Sea Turtle Network (Red Nica), tagged and released both of the hawksbills from La Flor National Wildlife Refuge. These hawksbills are the first of the species to be equipped with such devices along Nicaragua’s pacific coast. They represent a crucial advancement in the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative’s (ICAPO) efforts to acquire information and promote the recovery of this critically endangered population.

These historic events were made possible by PRETOMA, Paso Pacifico and each of their dedicated field teams. Proyecto ¡Carey! extends a special thanks to the Tempisque Conservation Area, MARENA, Red Nica, NOAA, the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, the US Fish & Wildlife Service, and the regional ICAPO hawksbill network.

You can follow these amazing turtles as they travel! Just visit www.seaturtle.org/tracking and search for Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative. Also, please visit www.pasopacifico.org to learn more about the conservation work taking place in Nicaragua.

Contact gaos@propeninsula.org for more information!