HATCH is dedicated to not only the protection and conservation of sea turtles in Ghana, but for the protection of the coastal habitat and estuaries that provide resources for the villages along the coast.  The current threats to sea turtles in Ghana include:

    1.) Direct harvesting of nesting females

    2.) Accidental capture in fishing nets

    3.) Collecting eggs from freshly deposited nests

    4.) Increased nest depredation from dogs and pigs

Sea turtle meat and eggs are commonly harvested as a result of the poverty along the coast.  When sea turtles are captured in the fishing nets, they are commonly slaughtered and sold in the markets to pay for the expense of repairing the damage to the net caused by the sea turtle.  In many parts of Ghana, fishermen kill sea turtles caught in the net simply because ‘more turtles in the sea means more holes in the nets’.

A new research and conservation project like this requires us to determine the severity of each threat and determine mechanisms that can be used to reduce these threats.  We are currently working to determine the proportion of nests we are losing as a result of the dogs and pigs on the beach.  We hope to develop a mechanism that will allow us to protect the eggs from these animals, as it seems very unlikely we will have success trying to remove the animals from the beach.  We are also working to document the fishing effort and the rate of sea turtle interaction in the local fishery that utilizes the near-shore habitats. 

HATCH is developing a conservation program based on the belief that conservation efforts can not proceed without the proper research, and that research should be aimed at answering questions that will improve the quality of the conservation program.