The Nkyene Turtle Project

The Nkyene Turtle Project Protecting Ghana’s sea turtles through community-driven conservation

A massive thank you to .elmes and Dustin for raising money for the project by running the North Bristol Brabazon Half Ma...
09/05/2026

A massive thank you to .elmes and Dustin for raising money for the project by running the North Bristol Brabazon Half Marathon last month! They raised a whopping £1,248!!!
Thank you to each and every person who donated, and to for their generous support too. Please go and check them all out ❤️
These donations will allow us to build another hatchery and continue supporting our local patrol team, meaning we can protect even more turtles for years to come! 🐢
fundraiser

They did it! 🏃‍♀️ 🏃 🎉A huge congratulations and massive thank you to Abbie and Dustin, who ran the North Bristol Brabazo...
10/04/2026

They did it! 🏃‍♀️ 🏃 🎉
A huge congratulations and massive thank you to Abbie and Dustin, who ran the North Bristol Brabazon Half Marathon on Sunday in support of the Nkyene Turtle Project. They absolutely smashed it!

We are incredibly grateful for their dedication and for all the funds raised for our upcoming season. This support will go directly toward building another hatchery, allowing us to protect even more turtle nests, and funding the wages of our local patrol team, made up of former poachers who we have trained to protect nesting mothers.

Their GoFundMe link is still in our bio, so if you’re able to donate then please do, every contribution truly makes a difference.
Thanks to this amazing effort, we’re heading into the next season in a strong position. The population is low here and we’re hopeful that together we can help turn things around.

None of this is possible without your support so thank you to each and everyone who has donated, and a big thank you again to Abbie and Dustin for putting in the leg work! We are so grateful ❤️

25/01/2026

Come excavate a nest with us!
It’s hatchling season! We have had 5 of our 28 nests hatch out so far.
After the babies emerge, we dig up the nest to take crucial data and to make sure there’s no one left behind.

We count the number of:
- shells - how many babies hatched out
- Pipped - hatchlings that have begun breaking through their shell but have not completely made it out (or expired in the process)
- Developing- eggs that were fertilised but the embryo did not survive to term (A,B and C stages)
- Undeveloped- unfertilised eggs

Not all hatchlings make it out of the nest and that is normal! The evolutionary strategy of turtles is to lay as many eggs as possible to give greater chance that one will survive to adulthood. Death is part of the circle. The babies that don’t make it are returned to the sea or the sand to become something else in the never-ending cycle of energy. 🙏

All of this information is used in calculations that help to monitor the nesting turtle population in the area.

There is very little research on sea turtles in this region of the world. The data we collect this first season is crucial in understanding the populations here and provides a baseline we can compare to future seasons.

If you have any questions, please reach out! We love to talk turtles!

Like/comment/follow to support the Nkyene Project! 🫶

🐢 Hatchling season has officially begun at the Nkyene Turtle Project 🐢
With nearly 3,000 eggs safely incubating in our h...
16/01/2026

🐢 Hatchling season has officially begun at the Nkyene Turtle Project 🐢
With nearly 3,000 eggs safely incubating in our hatchery, get ready for LOTS of hatchling content!
So far, four nests have already hatched, with many more expected over the next few days. Our nests are doing amazingly well, with a success rate of 75-90% so far. Looks like the hatchlings approve of the little home we built for them ❤️
We still have lots of nests and hatchlings available for adoption! You will receive a certificate and a picture of your hatchling/ nest as well as the nest data if you adopt a full nest. Dm for more info❤️

Christmas sale!!! 🎄 🎅 🎁 Still haven’t found the perfect Christmas gift? A baby turtle is pretty hard to beat 😏Our Olive ...
21/12/2025

Christmas sale!!! 🎄 🎅 🎁
Still haven’t found the perfect Christmas gift?
A baby turtle is pretty hard to beat 😏
Our Olive Ridley hatchlings are up for adoption!

Minimum donations:
$10/£8 for a single hatchling
$60/£45 for an entire nest

What will you get?
If you adopt a hatchling you will receive:
- An official certificate with your name and the name of your hatchling (you get to choose)
- When the baby hatches we will send you an updated certificate with the baby’s birthday
- A picture of your hatchling
- A video of them making their way to the sea

If you adopt an entire nest you will receive:
- An official certificate of adoption
- An updated birth certificate
- Pictures and videos of your nest hatching
- The data we collected on the nest (how many made it, what time they hatched, etc.)
- Videos of your babies returning to the sea!

Our nests are expected to start emerging in early January. If you are interested in adoption you can DM us, visit our website (link in bio), or email us: [email protected]

All donations go towards protecting the sea turtles of Ghana. Thank you for supporting this cause 🙏 Happy Holidays! 🫶🐢

15/12/2025

Ghana has this magical way of timing everything just right, and this patrol was proof of that. We were running a little late to patrol, and because of it we arrived just as this beautiful mama came ashore, glowing with bioluminescence. Any earlier and we would have missed her completely.

If we hadn’t stopped to sit with her, we wouldn’t have met the tiniest new member of our family, Ridley. Honestly, we don’t think he would have made it otherwise. Now he’s happy at home with us and getting stronger everyday!

This place really makes you see that the universe has a plan and everything happens for a reason.

04/12/2025

Meet our mamas!
Now that our hatchery is up and running, we’ve been able to increase our beach patrols, and we now have six nests safely protected in our hatchery. ^ Here’s a little look at some of the amazing mamas we’ve watched nest and return to the sea.

You might remember that back in October, on our very first patrol, every turtle track we found ended the same way the turtle had been taken. Since then, after speaking with more community members and poachers, the number of turtles and eggs taken has dropped. Sadly it does still happen but the progress is real.

Our next step is to train two former poachers to patrol with us, using their incredible knowledge of the nesting population for good and creating long term protection that benefits both the turtles and the community. To make this possible, we need to pay them a wage that replaces the income they have lost from taking turtles.

We’ve set up a new GoFundMe to support this. If you are able to donate, please visit the link in our bio 💛

Thank you for supporting us. None of this would be possible without you!!! ❤️❤️❤️

24/11/2025

WE BUILT OUR FIRST HATCHERY!!!
It took a lot of work and we wanted to share how we built it and why we made certain choices to keep our hatchlings safe. After a whole lot of weeding, digging and shifting more than 31 tons of sand, she’s finally complete!!!

This hatchery will be a safe place for the nests we relocate to grow and hatch, but it will also be an important educational tool. It sits right next to a school so the kids can get involved when we start doing excavations.

We’ll also be giving rides to anyone in the surrounding villages who wants to join us for nest excavations once the hatching begins so people can see and learn about the turtles that nest on their beaches.

We hope to build another hatchery soon but we definitely need a breather before doing that again! For now, we’ve got 32 spots ready for eggs and we can’t wait to fill it up and keep you all updated on the journey.

A huge thank you to Ammo and everyone who stopped by to help move sand whenever they could. It was a real team effort and we’re so proud of it. ❤️🐢

15/11/2025

Meet Yankey!
This man is the most incredible human being. He has been single-handedly saving the sea turtle population in this area for the last 15 years!

He has saved hundreds of turtles, risking his own safety to trick the poachers, free them from their restraints and if all else fails, buy them back with his own money to return them home.

Despite everything, he has watched the turtles die. Year after year, fewer and fewer mamas come to shore… but he has not given up hope.

The circumstances that have brought us this team together… we’re still trying to wrap our minds around. So many little things had to happen…and at the right time. So many decisions and chance encounters and individual experiences that eventually brought the three of us together.

This is all for Yankey. Yes, we are going to save the turtles, but this project is founded in love. We stand with a man who is so kind-hearted, so selfless and patient, so wise and warm…the type of person you do everything in your power to help because they are helping everyone and everything without asking for a single thing in return.

This team is strong 💪 and we are going to make a difference.

Please support us by liking/ commenting/ sharing. Follow us! This is going to be an incredible journey! 💛

If you would like to/ are able to donate we have a go fund me in our bio.

Thank you! 💛🐢

05/11/2025

A weekend to remember at the Eco Festival 🌿
Surrounded by nature, beautiful souls, and ideas that give hope for our planet.
Grateful for the connections, the conversations, and the energy that reminds us why we do what we do 💛🌞🐢

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Busua

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