Lynne and Patricia joined Yolanda Gutierrez, who lives near the city of Oaxaca, Mexico.
We traveled to the coast of Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido
to meet with Floriberto Vasquez, the director of the “Red de Humidales”,
an organization of small communities along the coast of Oaxaca
each working on conservation and restoration around their community.
These are economically impoverished areas
but the people believe in the importance of maintaining their ecological heritage.
Most are interested in the possibility of Ecotourism as an economic growth strategy.

With the support of the Red,
we visited five communities
involved in Sea turtle protection.
Sea turtles of many species,
some now endangered,
once nested on these beaches in the millions;
now only a few dozen come in at night
during the nesting season
to dig nests and deposit eggs on the beaches.
The communities visited had a variety
of strategies to mitigate this problem.

Generally, after working in their fields
or other jobs all day,
people walk the beaches
between midnight and 3 am
to find turtles coming ashore to nest.
They mark the spot and remove the eggs,
document them and rebury the eggs
at a safer location where
they will be protected and guarded
until hatching time.

We asked at each community what their current needs were
to assist and expand their capacity for sea turtle conservation
and ecotourism development.
For the coast of Oaxaca, we propose to assist the community of El Tomatal
by designing a visitor center in the shape or a turtle to welcome visitors year around
and expand their annual “festival del mar”.
The community has a source of funding for the building construction
but does not have the design resources to reach the construction phase.

With street performance artist Jesus Ibarri
we will create activities to engage and educate visitors about sea turtles.
We also propose creating some performances with community members
to ritualize the release of the baby turtles
and videoing the performances to increase interest in sea turtle conservation.
Lynne imagines a group of native women
in long dresses and skirts, with their children,
joined by a few international women volunteers,
ceremonially preparing, releasing and guarding the baby turtles,
nurturing the other species as they do their own children… 

We also propose to work with the museum to create interpretive sculptures
concerning the greatest challenges to female sea turtles,
who must survive for 15 years to reach breeding age. 
Turtle excluding shrimp and fish trawling nets exist,
but are not used as often or as efficiently as they could be,
and the artworks will raise awareness of the need for these devices.

The three eco-artistas are most enthusiastic
about the idea of designing and assisting in the creation of a sculptural raised boardwalk
along the back edge of the beach at a  site with mass turtle nesting.
We believe a carefully designed artwork could allow for visitors
at this amazing natural event while keeping disturbance away from the turtles.
We feel witnessing the phenomenon will be a life-changing experience for visitors
and will create many more advocates on behalf of the endangered turtles.