NEWSLETTER 4 - PARTY AT LA FAVOLA

On October 25th, the RSTP held a party at the restaurant-bar La Favola with entertainment from the band “On The Rocks.” The occasion was a chance to meet with all the supporters of the project and local community; updating them on all that had been done during the first five months of activity and talking about the future projects. The turn out was amazing, and we would like to thank everyone who has helped for their support and for making the evening a real success.

The video
After a little warm-up, the evening was introduced by a video that has been beautifully produced by Nigel Pickford on a storyboard by Claudio Di Manao. The video is a wonderful testimonial of the RSTP mission and a very revealing window on the endangered status of the sea turtles. The plight of sea turtles, mainly by human hand, is introduced and developed with graphic images and wonderful video footage, alternated by text and wrapped in a moving soundtrack. The message is very clear: human kind is the main culprit for the near extinction of a species that has been around for more than a 100 million years. But, because of this, human kind can do something about it!

The update
After the video, Marco (the RSTP founder) made a brief speech and updated everyone on the activities done so far by the RSTP and on its future projects. The update touched the main activities of the project that were introduced in June during the presentation of the RSTP to the local community at the Ras Mohamed National Park:

1.Sea Turtle Population Survey: this is where the local diving community is of the utmost importance for the success of the activity. The Population Survey is made possible by the sighting reports that dive guides and guests submit every time they spot a sea turtle. So far about 160 reports have been obtained and it is a great result! It is very important that this activity continues, either by submitting sightings on line or by the Sea Turtle Report Form, available by download. Please print as many copies as you need and let us know when we can come and collect them. It’s very important that not only dive guides fill them but also guests, in order to expand the awareness of the RSTP. This Population Survey is of great importance for the future tagging activity currently being planned by the RSTP.

2.Nesting Ground Survey: this is the mapping of the nesting grounds, which is being undertaken by the members of the team and volunteers. The main purpose of this activity is to prepare for next year’s protection of nests and hatching. The RSTP is currently looking for volunteers to carry forward this activity in their spare time. This involves going to the Ras Mohamed National Park and logging tracks and nests in order to come up with a clearer map of the most likely nesting grounds.

3.Awareness and Education: the awareness of the RSTP is getting bigger and bigger. The website has received more than 2,500 visits since July from all over the world; we are sending newsletter to more than 180 contacts; we are getting featured regularly on the main local and international magazines, and we are now on Facebook with our own group. Again, your help is vital to spread the awareness of the RSTP.
On the education side, as outlined in Newsletter n.3, the PADI Sea Turtle Awareness Specialty is now available online. This is a PADI Distinctive Specialty that Marco has written and taught for a couple of years and it's for divers and non-divers.
And if you want to teach this specialty, Marco also runs a PADI Sea Turtle Awareness Specialty Instructor course. Please send us an email for more information

Future Projects
On the future projects, Marco explained that some programs will be launched soon and others are more long term.
Amongst the first ones there will be 6 ways to safely interact with sea turtles, and Small garbage, in cooperation with MEDASSET. These are aimed at proposing some active ways for divers and snorkelers to help conserving and protecting sea turtles and their habitat.
Amongst the longer terms initiatives, there will be the nesting ground protection, the tagging activity (in order to understand more about migration behaviour), cooperation with local schools (in order to involve kids in the subject) and cooperation with the local Bedouin community and especially fishermen (in order to actively involve them in the project.)

Volunteers
The last thing that Marco highlighted is the need for volunteers. At the moment two – three people are running the project. We need volunteers to help us make this initiative more and more successful and we welcome anyone who is willing to spare some of their free time for the RSTP. At the moment, our most immediate needs are:

•Cartoonists: to prepare a presentation for kids in the schools

•Translators: to translate and maintain our website in French and German

But also we would need volunteers for: monitoring tasks, delivery and collection of leaflets and forms, graphic designing skills, marketing skills, etc. If you are interested in participating as volunteers please send us an email specifying what you would like to contribute with.
The evening has been a real success and we would like to thank the following people for their active help:

•Amr, for hosting the evening at La Favola and providing food and drinks

•On The Rocks, for rocking the evening

•Nigel Pickford, for the production of the video

•From Marco, a big thank you to Claudio for making this evening happen!

We hope that this evening will help spreading awareness of the Red Sea Turtle Project and making it an established initiative in the South Sinai.