Trinidad's Matura Beach and Grande Riviere Featured in National Geographic
Trinidad and Tobago’s growing reputation as a premiere turtle tourism destination received a major boost when the islands’ top beaches for nesting leatherbacks were featured in a recent issue of National Geographic Magazine.
The nesting of critically endangered leatherback turtles at Matura and Grande Riviere, both beaches on Trinidad’s Northeast coast, were featured in the May 2009 issue of the magazine as part of a multi-page article titled Ancient Mariner.
“Turtles are practically storming the beaches of Trinidad. Last year at Grande Riviere, a beach just a half mile long, 500 leatherbacks a night vied for nesting space…Elsewhere on the island, turtles have begun colonizing beaches that were empty just a few years ago,” wrote the article’s author, Tim Appenzeller.
The publication of the article comes as the Turtle Village Trust, in collaboration with the University of the West Indies (UWI), prepares to host an international conference on Turtle Conservation, Ecotourism and Sustainable Community Development from June 28th to 29th. The workshop is the first of its kind in the Caribbean region and provides a forum for the exchange of ideas on critical issues related to turtle conservation ecotourism, sustainable community development and the environment. The conference will be held at UWI’s Learning Resource Centre, St Augustine, Trinidad.
Other recent developments in Trinidad and Tobago’s burgeoning turtle tourism industry include the launch of a Visitor Orientation Centre at Grande Riviere, which is located in close proximity to the beach, and extensive awareness programmes in schools and communities that border nesting beaches.
Describing the number of turtles that visit Trinidad’s beaches as remarkable, the article noted that an estimated 8,000 leatherbacks visited the island to nest last year.
The full National Geographic article can be viewed here
To learn more about the turtles that nest on Trinidad and Tobago’s beaches click
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