GPS Eggs Can Save Endangered Sea Turtle Babies

MEGHAN BLITCHINGTON – Following a win in the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge, Kim Williams-Guillén, a conservation scientist at Paso Pacífico, teamed up with colleagues to bring her idea of GPS-filled eggs to fruition. The Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge is a challenge that aims to fund solutions to wildlife trafficking through innovative and technological means. Aptly named the InvestEGGator, Williams-Guillen designed the device to track sea turtle egg-trafficking. Trafficking occurs because criminals poach sea turtle eggs, contributing to the endangerment of sea turtles. Williams-Guillen and her research team have conducted and analyzed the first field test of the InvestEGGator.

In the beginning, Williams-Guillén was looking for a way to protect sea turtle species by preventing egg poaching. She began by placing fake eggs, containing a GPS, in the nests. Poachers would mistakenly carry away these GPS eggs with the real eggs, and Williams-Guillen could track them. Williams-Guillén and her colleagues worked to make the eggs as realistic as possible. There are seven different types of sea turtles, but the task of making a single egg is strenuous because it requires an intricate process. The researchers chose to create two different types of sea turtle eggs. They used a flexible thermoplastic polyeurethane called NinjaFlex to make the eggs, and they filled them with high-grade silicone rubber to mimic the flexibility and weight of real eggs. They included a dimple in the design since sea turtle eggs are typically soft and cave in where touched. The researchers then implanted a GPS transmitter into all of the eggs. They added ball bearings to the eggs meant to replicate eggs of green sea turtles. They used two models of transmitters that can withstand a large range of temperatures. However, both can only operate under open, clear skies. When the GPS fails to work, the transmitters use Location Based Services. The transmitters connect to a web-based or smartphone app that is encrypted. This process of transmission is how the researchers collected data.

The researchers tested the eggs before deploying them, and they placed eggs in the Carribean, Playa Norte; Pacific; Corozalito; Bejuco; and Ostional. They deployed the eggs and placed a single decoy per nest as poachers usually excavate the whole nest. According to the published field results, five of the 101 InvestEGGators tracked the routes that egg-poachers take, and the results are astonishing. The egg that traveled the farthest was tracked 137 kilometers inland, with its movement ceasing at  a supermarket for a few days. The last signal it sent was at a residential property. From these findings, the researchers speculate that they had seen the whole chain of trafficking from the poacher to the peddler. By studying the routes, researches can find hot spots for trading. Williams-Guillén reports that the tracker was never meant to identify and catch poachers since the majority live in poverty. The goal was to decrease trafficking by identifying hotspots and larger players.

Every species of sea turtle is endangered, and egg-poaching and the associated trafficking hinder conservation efforts. While identifying people involved can be helpful, many laws surrounding egg poaching and the selling of eggs are pliant and vague. Advocacy and education in areas where trafficking occurs are the most important ways that sea turtles can be saved from this unfortunate reality.

Copy Editor: Courteney Malin

Photography Source: Shweta Mistry, https://dunedoctors.com/help-save-baby-sea-turtles/