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Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN) is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1997. TIRN’s largest program, the Sea Turtle Restoration Project was founded in 1989 by biologist Todd Steiner. Steiner founded the project after learning that sea turtles he worked to protect in Central America were being legally slaughtered after they migrated into Mexican waters. 

STRP’s many victories have included compelling Mexico to end its legal harvest of sea turtles and closing a sea turtle slaughterhouse; compelling twenty nations to use turtle-saving gear in their shrimp-fishing practices; compelling creation of a 200,000 square mile area of ocean, the Leatherback Conservation Area (LCA), that restricts industrial fishing on the U.S. West Coast which his dangerous to sea turtles; and using California’s Prop 65 law to require California supermarkets and restaurants to post signs warning of mercury in seafood, to protect consumer health.

TIRN also sponsors projects that focus on protecting endangered salmon and toxic mercury in seafood.

The Sea Turtle Restoration Project fights to protect endangered sea turtles in ways that make cultural and economic sense to the communities that share the beaches and waters with these gentle creatures.

STRP’s goals are to:
    •    Protect and restore populations of endangered sea turtles to healthy conditions.
    •    Address the root causes of the sea turtle deaths, especially related to fisheries.
    •    Address the needs of local economies by helping them establish more sustainable development alternatives.
    •    Help citizens participate in problem solving by developing educational campaigns that build links between activists in the affected countries and in the US.
    •    Support emerging organizations in other countries in their call for international pressure to protect endangered sea turtles and our common marine resources.

In oceans around the globe, biologists are documenting dramatic declines in sea turtle populations. The decline of these ancient reptiles provides a vivid illustration of the collapse of other marine species as well. The loss of sea turtles themselves eliminates the important functions they contribute to marine and coastal ecosystems. But despite the dire threats to their survival, the protected status of ancient sea turtles and their public appeal make them an effective lever for change in ocean policies and practices, and in consumer choice. STRP uses sea turtles to draw attention to threats to the future of the oceans, and to address the immediate threats of industrial fishing and destructive energy production projects and pollution, through policy change, public outreach, and hands-on conservation.

In January 2010, after years of continued efforts by TIRN and our allies to protect leatherbacks off the U.S. West Coast, the government has proposed to designate more than 70,000 square miles of official “critical habitat” for endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtles. When adopted, this will be the first time critical habitat is created for sea turtles in ocean waters off the continental U.S. 

They can inform themselves and their peers about the harm that discarded plastic does to sea turtles and other ocean life, and commit to reducing and even eliminating single-use plastic in their lives in order to help stem the tide of plastic finding its way to the ocean.

They can inform themselves and their peers about how unsustainable fishing and fish farming practices are devastating the oceans, and pledge to avoid seafood that is unsustainably caught and raised and that is high in mercury, which is harmful to health.