Adopt a Hatchling
Change the odds for sea turtles
With less than a 1% chance of survival, leatherback hatchlings need your help! Your symbolic adoption protects hatchlings and their nests from immediate threats such as predation, tidal inundation, and illegal harvest. By involving local communities in these protection efforts, you help ensure a bright future for endangered sea turtles. Protect as many hatchlings as you’d like, at $30 per hatchling.
Donating in honor of a loved one? Be sure to include your honoree's name, email address, and a special message on our donation form. Adoptions made as a gift will be emailed to the purchaser.
Protecting
Sea Turtles
The endangered leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) is the largest of all sea turtles. Researchers, volunteers, and students at Costa Rica's Pacuare Reserve conduct night-time censuses of nesting turtles throughout the nesting season. They collect key biometric data like length and width and check for tags and other identifying marks.
If nests are found in unsuitable locales, they're relocated to the Reserve's hatchery to ensure the safety and success of the hatchlings.
Check out our giving levels to see how you can make a meaningful contribution to sea turtle conservation.
1 Mile of Beach
Go the extra mile! Your gift ensures that the beach stays clear of dangerous debris like fishing nets.
Adopt a Pair
Two is always better than one! Hatchlings use the natural light of the ocean to navigate
Protect a Nest
The collective digging of the hatchings helps all the hatchlings make it to the surface safely.
Adopt 1 Hatchling
Turtles face a 1% survival rate, so every hatchling important to this species' survival.
Adopt 5 Hatchlings
A group of hatchlings that sticks together is safer together, so why not adopt a bunch?
Adopt for A Classroom
Show your appreciation by giving an Adopt a Hatchling classroom kit to a teacher.
Pacuare Reserve's
Hatcheries
Home to the most important leatherback nesting beach in Costa Rica, Pacuare Reserve is a scientifically managed wildlife reserve on Costa Rica's Caribbean Coast.
Although Pacuare Reserve’s initial efforts successfully safeguarded nests, eggs, and mothers, and the beach continues to be visited by nesting females each year, reports show that recent hatching rates of in situ—literally “in place”—nests have been poor.
Only 23% of eggs from natural nests are actually hatching. In response, Pacuare Reserve has developed a method to prepare sand, relocate, and safely sequester threatened sea turtle nests—the hatcheries of Pacuare Reserve.
Find more sea turtle gifts at the EPI Store
Or, shop with one of
EPI's Adopt a Hatchling Partners!
