The story of ETC started when German marine biologist Maike Heidemeyer gave a presentation about coastal-marine conservation near El Jobo in 2014. Right after the talk, a group of locals led by Ricardo Obando, and siblings Randall and Kembly Mora, approached Maike and asked for help to protect the local turtles. From the beginning, they were a driving force, convincing Maike of the extraordinary turtle activity they experience all year long.

Full of confidence and energy, the locals began to patrol the beaches and record all turtle activity. They soon learned how to identify different turtle species, count and relocate egg nests, and even how to conduct in-water surveys of the turtles that came to the peninsula to forage for food. After collecting all this data, it became clear that El Jobo was an incredibly significant place for sea turtles and their nesting behavior. The locals and the researcher sat together, developed a sustainable community-based strategy and soon after, ETC was founded in 2016. While ETC may have started off as an organization dedicated to sea turtles, it has grown to include many other important marine life as well, from whales to sting rays and even octopus.

Today, members of ETC include many local families, fishers, housewives, tourism operators, and scientists from around the world. The team remains dedicated to their mission of creating a community-based conservation initiative, whether through their ongoing research projects or their outreach and education programs. It is all thanks to the passion and dedication of our team that ETC continues to do amazing work on behalf of the animals and ecosystem we love and cherish here in Costa Rica.

Check out this article if you want to read about our founding story from an external source:

https://vozdeguanacaste.com/en/a-community-in-guanacaste-decided-to-change-the-destiny-of-endangered-turtles/