Photo: Nova Scotia Leatherback Turtle Working Group

Beneficiary: Nova Scotia Leatherback Turtle Working Group, $5,000 award

'Every choice we make has to have a positive impact on the future of the turtle.'

In 1997, Mike James and Kathleen Martin set out to protect the endangered leatherback sea turtle. They had one problem: first they had to find the elusive Dermochelys coriacea. While the world's largest reptile was rumoured to visit the coastal waters of Atlantic Canada, a meagre 73 recorded sightings offered little data to launch a conservation campaign. "At the time, most people believed that leatherbacks were accidental visitors only," explains James, a self-described "turtle freak" who was an Acadia University biology graduate student at the time. "It was a huge risk going against established science."

Undeterred, James and Martin founded the Nova Scotia Leatherback Turtle Working Group (NSLTWG) and took their quest directly to the community with a mass poster campaign asking, "Have you seen this turtle?" In the first two seasons, they visited 175 wharves in Nova Scotia and 60 in Prince Edward Island, meeting with fishermen and encouraging them to call NSLTWG's toll-free line to report their encounters with the mattress-sized reptile. "Fishermen are the only people who see leatherbacks with any consistency," says James. "We needed help from the fishermen to find the turtles, but we also had to arouse their passion and sense of stewardship to protect them."

After a decade of committed work, leatherback sightings have surged to 1,000 and NSLTWG has spawned a revolutionary model for marine conservation. The annual visits to coastal villages have earned the loyal participation of more than 550 volunteer fishermen, as well as naturalists, tour-boat operators and community members, who have learned techniques for disentangling turtles from fishing gear, the chief threat to the leatherback's survival. "Our fundamental goal is to protect the turtles," says James. "Every choice we make has to have a positive impact on their future."

NSLTWG's community engagement includes issuing newsletters, making school visits and conducting workshops that communicate findings about the natural history of the more than 90-million-year-old species. Groundbreaking research on the leatherback's visits to Canadian summer feeding grounds and on the perpetual migration of the male leatherback adds knowledge critical for conservation. "With the help of the community," concludes James, "we've gone from knowing very little to learning that the temperate North Atlantic is absolutely essential for the leatherback's survival."