Where We Are

Located at the end of the road, the community of Matelot supports a small fishing depot. We traveled here to speak with Fishers about their efforts to reduce the accidental entanglement of leatherback sea turtles in their nets.

The turtle nesting beach at Grande Riviere, supports the highest density of leatherback sea turtles anywhere in the world. With more than 3,000 leatherbacks nesting on this 800 meter long beach each year, it is an extraordinary spectacle. Such high density nesting also provides a unique challenge to the sea turtle conservation project here, particularly in terms of managing the tourists and visitors who come here to witness nesting by the amazing sea turtles. The class spent an few hours speaking with the turtle conservation staff, as well as enjoying the wonderful body surfing available on this beach. Two events were particularly memorable. The body surfing students had a leatherback surface right next to them, and we had a turtle initiate nesting before it was dark! Both provided the chance to sea the turtles in a whole new way!

We took a nice break on our long drive up the coast to see this important offshore habitat for leatherbacks. It also gave us a chance to see the wonderful scenery along this part of the coast.