Research Summary
Laguna San Ignacio, Baja California Sur, Mexico — If you’re interested in helping science understand more about black turtles while working in a stunning landscape, this is the expedition for you! You’ll focus on the development and feeding behavior of these endangered reptiles. You’ll be immersed in lagoon life in one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
The calm, warm waters of San Ignacio Lagoon are a haven for wildlife. The area is known for the winter visits of grey whales, but many other marine animals, including the black sea turtle, also frequent the lagoon. Little is known about where sea turtles go and what they do after they leave their hatching beaches and before they return as reproductive adults, so the presence of these sea turtles in San Ignacio Lagoon offers researchers the perfect opportunity to fill gaps in the data that informs conservation efforts worldwide.
You can help Drs. Volker Koch, Wallace J. Nichols, and William Megill in their research on the movements, abundance, and distribution of black sea turtles in the lagoon, as well as on the oceanographic conditions of the lagoon and the near shore Pacific.
Meet the Scientists
Dr. Volker Koch
Universidad Autonomá de Baja California Sur (UABCS), Mexico
Dr. Koch is an Assistant Professor in Marine Biology at UABCS, and a member of the conservation group INCODE. He is a Marine Ecologist and his work focuses on species and ecosystem conservation, small-scale sustainable aquaculture, and on population dynamics of marine invertebrates. He has been involved in sea turtle ecology and conservation for many years, and has published extensively on both subjects. He studied at the University of Bremen in Germany and has been working in Mexico, Brazil and Costa Rica for the past decade.
Dr. William Megill
University of Bath, UK
Dr. Megill is a Lecturer in Biomimetics at the University of Bath, and Research Director of the Coastal Ecosystems Research Foundation (CERF). His research is at the interface between biology and engineering. He and his students are developing tools and techniques for studying marine ecosystems, from novel propulsion systems for submersibles to extracting biodiversity information from conventional and biomimetic sonar signals. He completed his PhD at the University of British Columbia, and has been working in San Ignacio Lagoon since 2001. He also serves as a PI on the Whales of British Columbia expedition.
Dr. Wallace J. Nichols
California Academy of Sciences
Dr. Nichols is a Research Associate at the California Academy of Sciences and collaborates with numerous non-profit organizations and government agencies on a range of ocean and coastal research, conservation and education programs, with a particular focus on sea turtles. He has recently been elected President of the International Sea Turtle Society. His academic background is in wildlife ecology and evolutionary biology as well as natural resources economics and policy. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Arizona and Duke University. He was involved for several years in a previous Earthwatch sea turtle research project further north in Baja California.