BajaNomad - 8-31-2004 at 03:39 PM
This just forwarded from Wallace J. Nichols:
-----
Dear friends of Proyecto Caguama,
Thanks to the vision and hard work of Johath Laudino, the festival committee of ten local women, the proCAGUAMA 2004 team, and many, many others, El
Segundo Festival de las Caguamas en Puerto Adolfo Lopez Mateos, BCS was a grand success. Most of the town turned out for the festival, joined by
friends and family from other parts of BCS, despite flash flooding on the highway.
The festivities began Friday evening with a parade of the giant caguama in a police truck accompanied by an ambulance, 30 or so cars, and hordes of
kids on bikes through almost every street of the town. Saturday afternoon the giant turtle was back in the truck, this time leading a walking parade
of kindergartners around the plaza. Mini-maratones followed (note the starting line in front of five new sea turtle murals), made all the more
dramatic by a storm front that rolled in from the sierra. Despite the unusual threat of rain, Cintia Orozco and crew from the Secretaria de Turismo
put on a children?s art contest. Just after sundown, the delegado and other dignitaries inaugurated the festival. Lopez Mateos? own Prisioneros then
took the stage, playing their new sea turtle songs, followed by several more performances all developed with Johath over the past eight months. Thanks
to broad support (below), we were able to publicly reward promising young artists and athletes with prizes and trophies. The festival finished with
the crowning of young Griselda Arag?n Zamora, the queen of the festival and vocera for the cause.
Loggerhead turtles, locally known as caguamas, connect the ecosystems and cultures of the Pacific Rim through their migrations. These Pacific
ambassadors gather off the coast of Baja California Sur to feed and mature on swarms of pelagic red crabs. Off Puerto Lopez Mateos, they forage
especially close to shore where gillnet fishing is intense. This unfortunate overlap of fishing and foraging results in severe turtle bycatch - the
greatest known threat to loggerheads in the north pacific.
We launched the Festival de las Caguamas in 2003 to celebrate loggerhead turtles as the unique local treasure they are. Response to the festival and
our other outreach efforts has been overwhelmingly positive. As people realize that caguamas gather (and die) here like nowhere else in the Pacific,
they invariably strive to change the situation. For example, our team of halibut fishermen is developing solutions to avoid turtle mortality while
maintaining livelihoods. Through the Festival we highlight their efforts and emphasize that the caguamas? future is largely in the hands of BCS
fishermen.
Save the last weekend of August 2005 - come out for the festival and spend a day offshore among loggerheads while you?re at it...
Many, many thanks for your interest!
Hoyt
(on behalf of proCAGUAMA)
TEAM proCAGUAMA 2004
johath laudino santill?n (RARE/Pronatura)
bertha monta?o medrano (UABCS/CIBNOR)
victor de la toba (Grupo Tortuguero)
esteban delgado (U. Wisconsin)
cintia orozco m. (Secretaria del Turismo)
ruth ochoa diaz (CICIMAR/CUCBA Uni. Guadalajara)
david maldonado d. (IEA)
vladimir de la toba (Grupo Tortuguero)
tim means (Niparaja/Baja Expeditions)
erika casta?on moreno
chris pesenti (ProPeninsula)
xochil salazar molina (Uni. Michoacana)
wallace j. nichols (Blue Ocean)
hoyt peckham (Blue Ocean)
FESTIVAL COMIT?
Marina Verduzco Peralta
Ramona Collins ?lvarez
Juana Duarte Ram?rez
Norma Ram?rez Garc?a
Ana Bertha Cinco ?lvarez
Judith Romero Lucero
Lourdes de la Rosa Sandoval
Aurora de la Rosa Lucero
Maricela de la Toba Miranda
FISHER PARTNERS
Jose Collins Parra
Carlos Sigalas
Tony Sigalas
Alfredo de la Toba
Arturo Contreras Camacho
Arturo de la Toba Dom?nguez
Cesareo Castro Gonz?lez
Carlos Sigala Villavicencio
Giovanni Collins Gonz?lez
Refugio Villa Aguilar
Alfonso Loera de la Toba
Antonio Sigala Villavicencio
Leonardo de la Toba Gonz?lez
Arturo de la Toba Gonz?lez
Jose Maria de la Toba Gonz?lez
LOCAL STUDENT INTERNS
Octavio Asale Verdugo Dom?nguez
Vanessa S?nchez Murillo
Jesus Manuel Espinosa Miranda
Perla Marina Ahumada Verduzco
Dulce Maria Ba?ales Aguilar
Oyuki Yoshimara Silva Osuna
Felizardo Jesus Felix Verdugo
Griselda Guadalupe Arag?n Zamora
Manuel Antonio Murillo
Frania Alejandra Ventura Vazquez
Citlali Guadalupe Meza Dom?nguez
FESTIVAL SPONSORS
Blue Ocean Institute
Grupo Tortuguero de las Californias
Western Pacific Fisheries Council (Irene Kinan)
Secretaria del Turismo (Cintia Orozco)
Niparaja (Tim Means)
ProPeninsula (Chris Pesenti and Kama Dean)
RARE
PRONATURA
Global Greengrants Fund
Project AWARE
Baja Expeditions
SEMARNAT
PROFEPA
ProCAGUAMA SUPPORT
Packard Foundation
Western Pacific Fisheries Council
National Marine Fisheries Service
PADI Foundation
Marine Conservation Action Fund
West Marine, Inc
American Museum of Natural History / Lerner Grey Fund
Pacific Rim Research Program
Centread
[Edited on 8-31-2004 by BajaNomad]