Community Involvement
Adopt and Release a Green Sea Turtle
Cayman's Turtle Adoption & Release Program has started again and is being run in partnership with the Cayman Turtle Farm, Rogest and Divetech. The goal of the program is to allow individuals or corporations to become involved and take ownership of being a steward of the marine environment, in this case, support of the repopulation of green sea turtles. CLMS became a sponsor and adopted 7 green sea turtles to be set free into the wild.
Originally started in 2002, the program was successful in releasing about 16 turtles a week from the Cayman Turtle Farm back into the wild, but lost momentum following Hurricane Mitch and then Hurricane Ivan which reduced the stock at the Cayman Turtle Farm, putting the initiative on hold for a while.
“Divetech said that both Cayman Islands’ residents and visitors, along with many folks from overseas, have sponsored turtle releases and these caring people deserve a “big thank you” for adopting and releasing one to two-year-old (“head-started”) green sea turtles back into the wild, helping to replenish the stock of green sea turtles into the Cayman waters.
While it may be up to 40 years before these turtles breed and return to Cayman beaches to lay their eggs, the replenishment program is meant to enhance the population of green sea turtles for both now and for future generations in Cayman.
The yearling turtles are tagged with a titanium flipper tag on their fore-flipper which identifies an individual animal. The majority of tag returns have come from Cuba, with returns also from Honduras, Venezuela, the United States, Panama, Belize, Nicaragua, and Mexico.
