Hawksbill Cup

What is the Hawksbill Cup?

The hawksbill turtle in the eastern Pacific is one of the most endangered sea turtle populations in the world and 80% of their nesting is concentrated at two sites: the Bahia Jiquilisco Biosphere Reserve in El Salvador and the Estero Padre Ramos Natural Reserve in Nicaragua.

The Hawksbill Cup is a friendly conservation competition between these two sites to see which team can score the most “hawksbill conservation goals”, the final winner being the team that has protected the most nests, liberated the most hatchlings and garnered the most community participation. There will only be one winner, although we all win in terms of conservation of the species.

As part of this conservation effort on behalf of hawksbills, organizations, governments and communities in Nicaragua, El Salvador and abroad, have come on-board in support of the two teams and anxiously follow the play-by-play action each year.

• The winner of the 2015 Hawksbill Cup is announced!!!

  January 17, 2016
       

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• Conservation goals through September 2015

  October 21, 2015
  Team Bahia de Jiquilisco maintains its lead over Team Estero Padre Ramos!      

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• Team Bahía de Jiquilisco feels confident…but should they?

  August 27, 2015
  Team Bahia de Jiquilisco (pictured below) is feeling confident about their lead, but should they? During the first two Cups Team Bahia Jiquilisco got out to a quick start, but Team Estero Padre Ramos rallied a furious comeback on both occasions and secured the wins. Last year however, Team Bahia ...

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The Rules

Teams: Local hawksbill egg collectors and project staff in Estero Padre Ramos (“Team EPR”) and in Bahia de Jiquilisco (“Team BJ”)

Conservation goals are tracked on a monthly basis (see “The Scoreboard” below), during which the team that obtains the highest score for each category receives 1 “goal” and the team that fails to achieve the highest score receives 0 “goal”. For example, if Team EPR was to protect 98% of nests laid during the month of May and Team BJ was to protect 92% of nests laid, Team EPR would receive 1 goal and Team BJ would receive 0 goals. At the end of the season the scores are summed and the team that has the most conservation goals wins the Hawksbill Cup.

Impartial Referee: Ingrid Yañez, ICAPO, California, USA
Cup Duration: May–October of each year

How goals are scored:

Adult Hawksbill Monitoring

1)  Number of successful and unsuccessful nesting events: The total number of hawksbills that attempt to nest, whether successful or unsuccessful and whether seen or not seen by project staff.

2)  Percent of events during which the turtle was seen: Of the total number of successful and unsuccessful nesting attempts, the percent of turtles measured and tagged by project staff.

Nest Protection

3)  Total number of nests: Number of nests laid by hawksbills, whether protected by the project or extracted for consumption (unprotected).

4)  Percent of nests protected: Of the total number of nests laid, the Percent of those that were successfully protected in hatcheries or in-situ.

Hatchling Production

5)  Number of hatchlings: Total number of viable hatchlings produced.

6)  Percent of eggs that produce hatchlings: Of the total number of eggs protected, the percent of eggs that produce viable hatchlings.

Participation of Hawksbill Egg Collectors

7)  Number of egg collectors: Total number of individual hawksbill egg collectors that deliver hawksbill nests to the project for protection.