Over $7,000 Raised for Hurricane Relief Give the Gift of Conservation! A Hawksbill's Journey Pro Peninsula's New Business Partners Congratulations Margarita Diaz - 2009 Coastal Champion Share Your Ocean Voice!

Last September Hurricane Jimena swept onto the Baja California peninsula, hitting the Bahia Magdalena region especially hard. Dozens of small communities along the peninsula were inundated with water, losing power and access to clean drinking water. Countless structures and buildings were damaged or destroyed, and heavy downpours led to serious erosion along hillsides and into waterways. This region is home to critical sea turtle foraging sites, as well as many other important natural resources. Although there were no reported human fatalities as a result of Hurricane Jimena or the two subsequent tropical storms that hit the area, community members are still in the midst of an enormous struggle to rebuild their lives. Faced with this disaster, Pro Peninsula turned to you, our supporters, to aide in the recovery of the Baja California region.

Over the past month, our supporters have banded together to help the communities affected by Hurricane Jimena. With over $7,000 now raised, the families in this region are beginning to rebuild their lives in the wake of a devastating natural disaster. In particular, the communities of San Carlos, López Mateos and San Lázaro are currently receiving aide as a direct result of your relief donations. The Hurricane relief funds raised by Pro Peninsula were distributed amongst the different communities in the form of credits to local construction supply stores, which most families used to purchase roofing materials and nails to reconstruct their damaged homes. The communities have combined limited government support with your donations to begin the reconstruction process. With some donations earmarked for specific families in need, your support has helped to ensure that the important environmental work taking place in these areas will persist into the future.

Pro Peninsula has been stunned not only by the generosity and concern from our members, but also by the optimism of the Mexican families. For example, Francisco and Bertha Romero, who lost their entire house during the storms, simply gave thanks for being alive. The 17 recipients of relief funds in the community of San Carlos banded together and bought enough materials for just one of their compañeros, who lost his entire house, to rebuild. Your support, along with the community members' steadfast courage, will ensure that the Baja region gets back on its feet following this natural disaster.

On behalf of Pro Peninsula and The Ocean Foundation, thank you for your support of the Hurricane Jimena recovery efforts.

"To give the gift of conservation to those we care for is a loving demonstration of one’s shared values and sense of hope for the future," says Kama Dean, Pro Peninsula Program Officer. "We have a variety of gift options fit for all ages which are rewarding both to give and to receive." Pro Peninsula offers a variety of environmentally-conscious gift ideas to honor your friends and loved ones this holiday season. Gifts that contribute to environmental conservation are especially rewarding for young children and teens, allowing them to gain a greater appreciation for nature and to learn how to make a real difference in protecting the environment now, and as they enter adulthood.

Gift purchases from Pro Peninsula support our environmental conservation work throughout San Diego and the Baja California peninsula. Gifts start at just $15 and are easily available by visiting the Pro Peninsula "Shop to Sustain" online store.

Gifts available through our Shop to Sustain website include:

• Children’s sea turtle books, "Chelonia: Return of the Sea Turtle," co-authored by Wallace J. Nichols and available in English or Spanish ($15)
• Scenic Baja Photography, framed or unframed (starting at $20)
• Organic Cotton Pro Peninsula T-Shirts ($20 - $25)
• Pro Peninsula Memberships (starting at $35)
• Sea Turtle Adoptions (starting at $35) & Sea Turtle Adoption Gift Sets (an additional $30), which include a handmade eco-friendly plush sea turtle, an official adoption certificate and photo of your adopted turtle, a Chelonia sea turtle book, a Pro Peninsula organic cotton t-shirt, and more!

Joalin in July of 2008 (left) and one year later in September of 2009.

On June 20, 2008, while tending entanglement nets to study hawksbill sea turtles near the town of Loreto in Baja California Sur, Mexico, Pro Peninsula's Proyecto ¡CAREY! caught its first hawksbill turtle. At the time, Proyecto ¡CAREY! was the only project in the entire eastern Pacific focused on researching and conserving hawksbills, a population of sea turtles that had been all but written off by most scientists as extinct. The researchers named their first hawksbill sea turtle “Joalin”. Measuring about 48 cm CCL (Curved Carapace Length), Joalin was considered a juvenile. In addition to being outfitted with metal flipper tags for future identification, Joalin was also equipped with a satellite transmitter in order to track the turtle’s movements in upcoming months. Thus Joalin became the first hawksbill turtle ever to be equipped with such a device in the entire eastern Pacific region. Researchers hoped that every time the turtle emerged from the surface of the water to breath, the transmitter, adhered to the turtle’s shell with epoxy, would send a signal strong enough to reach satellites orbiting the planet, which would then determine Joalin’s geographic location.

Sea turtles are highly migratory, and during their movements they are exposed to a variety of threats such as interactions with fishing gear. One of the main objectives of Proyecto ¡Carey! is to understand the turtles' movement throughout the region. Unfortunately, due to some sort of malfunction, Joalin’s transmitter never sent a signal, and researchers were left without a clue as to Joalin’s whereabouts. Continued efforts by Proyecto ¡CAREY! resulted in the capture and application of satellite tags on two additional hawksbill turtles, Sadir and Peñasquita (click here to read their story), in the waters off Mexico’s Pacific coast during subsequent weeks.

A short time later, with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Proyecto ¡CAREY! connected with other partner organizations to equip additional hawksbills with tracking devices in El Salvador, Ecuador, and Nicaragua (follow these turtles here), turning the research into a region-wide conservation effort. Nonetheless, Joalin remained at large, until September 25th 2009 when Park Rangers from Loreto National Park in BCS caught a hawksbill turtle during their monthly monitoring as part of the Grupo Tortuguero sea turtle conservation network. Noticing that the hawksbill had a transmitter attached to its shell, the Rangers immediately contacted Proyeco ¡CAREY! and, to everyone's surprise, it was Joalin—10 centimeters longer! Joalin became the first juvenile hawksbill sea turtle ever to be recaptured in the Eastern Pacific Ocean—more than one year after the initial capture!

In July of 2008, Proyecto ¡CAREY! and PRETOMA (Programa Restauración de Tortugas Marinas) deployed entanglement nets and caught a hawksbill turtle ("Atardacer") near Punta Coyote, adjacent to the Caletas-Ario National Wildlife Refuge on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Since that time, PRETOMA has established a permanent in-water monitoring project, and has captured several more hawksbills to date, recapturing Atardacer just last month.

The hawksbill conservation events recorded throughout the eastern Pacific are astonishing—especially considering the fact that this species had essentially been considered extinct by many scientists. The information generated from these recaptures provides the first insight into hawksbill growth rates in the region, which is critically important to establishing population trends and other key tools for the management and conservation of hawksbills. While many questions remain, we are beginning to find answers and have confirmed the continued existence of hawksbills in the eastern Pacific, thereby opening the door for important species recovery opportunities.

All of the previously mentioned organizations are working in conjunction with the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative (ICAPO), an International network dedicated to researching and conserving hawksbills in the region, and raising public awareness about the critical plight of this species. For more information visit www.hawksbill.org.

Pro Peninsula is happy to announce our newly developed business partnerships with a variety of environmentally-conscious companies! Our partners span from outdoor retailers to wine and apparel companies, providing you with a direct connection to some of the most sustainable businesses around! We invite you to shop Pro Peninsula's Shop to Sustain website this holiday season, where you’ll find more ways than ever before to show your support for environmental conservation!

Partnerships With Who?

• VinoFina
• Shark Trust Wines
• Barking Turtle Co.
• Glide
• Wabisabi Green
• REI

Margarita Diaz was presented with the Coastal Champion award by San Diego Coastkeeper at their annual gala on October 24th, 2009. Margarita is the current director of Proyecto Fronterizo de Educacion Ambiental (PFEA), a local environmental conservation and advocacy non-profit in Playas de Tijuana. Margarita, in her role at PFEA, has become THE community advocate for environmental protection in the community of Playas. Playas is located immediately south of San Diego County, just across the international border from Imperial Beach. Her efforts focus on beach and coastal health and conservation, access to information and citizen right to know laws, water quality (particularly pertaining to the Tijuana River Watershed and the coastal environment), and cross-border environmental education and conservation.

Each year, the coastal champion award is given to a community champion that has played a vital role in protecting and restoring San Diego’s local waterways. While the majority of Margarita’s work has taken place in Playas de Tijuana, a major issue facing the city of San Diego and the health of our beaches is the health of Mexico’s beaches and waterways. The Tijuana River runs though Mexico before returning to the U.S. and emptying into the ocean in Imperial Beach. The coastal currents carry pollution from Playas up into Imperial Beach and the coasts of San Diego. Therefore, Margarita’s efforts as THE citizen advocate for clean beaches and waterways in Tijuana have a direct effect on the health and cleanliness of San Diego’s beaches and waterways.

You can learn more about Margarita and her work at PFEA by visiting www.proyectofronterizo.org.mx.

Sound artist Halsey Burgund and marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols joined forces recently to collect the voices of people around the world as they recount their personal experiences with the ocean. Help them reach their goal of 1,000 different voices by sharing your own ocean message and spreading the words of all participants around the globe!

Visit www.oceanvoices.org to participate!