Inwater Group Research Inc

IRG education team reached over 30,000 individuals across four states and ten countries through hands on, standards aligned programs that integrate sea turtle science with real world conservation. From empowering K 12 students through our Traveling Trunks to engaging Spanish speaking communities via Amigos de las Tortugas and supporting global conservation through the International Sea Turtle Ambassadors program, our efforts fostered environmental stewardship on both local and international scales. We expanded professional development for educators, launched new outreach initiatives like Tag, You are It!, and grew our trunk partner network by 350%, creating powerful pathways for inclusive, science based learning.

IRG made significant progress on both sea turtle abundance estimation and deterrent testing projects. Key accomplishments include the successful tagging of 940 individual nesting sea turtles on Hutchinson Island by the saturation tagging team and the procurement of critical equipment for the offshore abundance estimation surveys, including satellite tags, side scan sonar, and adaptive resolution imaging sonar (ARIS). This equipment will be used in a project to understand how to reduce sea turtle entrainment into the St. Lucie Power Plant on Hutchinson Island. Additionally, we provided technical support to design plans for the construction of a test tank that we will use to test sea turtle deterrents that would reduce the number of sea turtles entering the canal system of the power plant.