CLICK HERE for tickets to our Turtle Friend Beach Party on May 19th!
The Turtle Friend Story begins with its founders and their initial vision. Jonas and Matson visited Nicaragua with their families in 2014 and during their visit went to some of the beaches where sea turtles nest and lay their eggs. Upon learning about all the poaching and habitat destruction in Central America that is impacting sea turtle populations, they decided there had to be something they could do to help. Jonas and Matson really wanted other people around the world to be able to see up close and personal footage of the beautiful sea turtle species that are in danger of extinction. They also thought it would be really cool to be able to see where the turtles migrate to after they laid their eggs. That was when they came up with the idea of getting people to pay attention to turtles by creating an app for smartphones!
The two boys reached out to Paso Pacifico because of their personal connection with its founder . . . and because they knew it was the right organization for the job! Paso Pacifico’s mission is to restore and protect the natural ecosystems of Central America’s Pacific slope. With over 40 individuals on the ground in Nicaragua working to protect the region’s endangered wildlife, they have the organizational capacity to execute the Turtle Friend project. Thus Turtle Friend was born!
From there, Paso Pacifico secured the support of other groups working in sea turtle conservation who thought Turtle Friend was an excellent idea. After all of the initial start-up money was raised via crowdsourcing, development of the app began. Turtle Friend was fully developed for its users and is now available for iOS and Android users alike! And all of this brings us to today, with the Turtle Friend app and website up and running for people around the globe.
