Love turtles? Want to see sea turtles in their natural habitat?

Check out SEE Turtles, a nonprofit turtle conservation tourism project that allows people to have a hand in helping sea turtles thrive.  I spoke with co-founder Brad Nahill at Denver Green Fest earlier this month about the project and the big question: why turtles?

Nahill and fellow co-founder, Dr. Wallace Nichols, had been working with sea turtle conservation programs in developing countries in which the locals would poach the turtles to eat, as well as use their shells. At the same time, those communities would express a desire to help the turtles, but they just didn’t know where to start or how to help.

Nahill and Nichols wanted to open up people’s eyes to these smaller, overlooked conservation spaces, while at the same time making the efforts more systematic.

Nahill began his work with sea turtles after joining a small conservation out of college. “It was an easy thing to do. You don’t have to be a biologist. It’s simple work, but very gratifying. I just kept going back until it finally became a career.”

And why turtles? Generally, spotting wildlife is left to chance, while turtles are predictable.

Researchers know where they’re going to be and at what time. Turtle conservations are also very kid-friendly, they’re non-aggressive and they’re easy to get away from!

The SEE Turtle Project has sites at Baja, Costa Rica, and Trinidad and Tobago, with more opening up. Everything they do is geared toward a community benefit.

One obvious benefit is the economical uptick these communities see. Even more importantly is the renewed community attitude toward the turtles. Nahill has witnessed communities that ten years ago would’ve poached every turtle, now become prideful and very involved in the safety of the turtles.

Ready to go? People can spend anywhere from two weeks to two months at a site, living with a host family. It’s fairly affordable, around $15-$20 a day. Keep in mind, this is hard work. You will be out measuring and tagging turtles each night, in very simple living quarters, eating three square meals of beans and rice everyday.

If you’re not up for the physical strain of hanging with 800 pound turtles (and not many people are!), you can still help.

There are local turtle conservation organizations in many places with many opportunities to jump in. The most important thing, says Nahill, is hanging on to your plastic bags. Even from land-locked countries, plastic bags can make their way to oceans in which turtles mistake the bags for jellyfish and try to eat them.

In the local conservation communities, SEE Turtles has worked with people to take recycled bags and make them into fashionable purses and totes to sell.

Lastly, SEE Turtles is working to pass a wildlife stamp bill in which endangered species, including turtles, would be featured on special wildlife postage stamps. They would cost a little extra, but bring in millions for conservation programs.

Nahill encourages you to write your congressperson about passing this potentially huge bill.

For more SEE Turtle info, beautiful pictures of these amazing creatures, and how to get involved, check out seeturtles.org