The Leatherback Trust is a non-profit foundation established by James R. Spotila, Ph.D. to save the leatherback turtle and other sea turtles from extinction. The Leatherback Trust scientists were instrumental in founding a new national park, Parque Marino Las Baulas, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The park protects the most important leatherback nesting beaches in the Pacific Ocean. Our scientists have trained park rangers and guides, worked with local school children and advised the local community on living in harmony with the leatherbacks. Before the Park was established poachers took 100% of nests. Now almost all nests are protected and a hatchery protects nests that would be washed away by high tides or eaten by predators. Now thousands of hatchlings crawl to the ocean every season where five years ago only a few survived.
