Blue Corridors for Turtles – Funding Opportunity and Call for Data to Identify Important Marine Turtle Areas (IMTAs)

Blue Corridors for Turtles (BC4T) is a global initiative bringing together research institutions, non-profits, corporations, government agencies and local communities to conserve marine turtles. The project aims to map marine turtle movements and threats to pinpoint populations most at-risk and help identify Important Marine Turtle Areas (IMTAs) at a global scale (see the project brochure for details). 

It is a community partnership, coordinated by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), with the Secretariat of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), the University of Queensland (UQ), The State of the World’s Sea Turtles (SWOT) program, ShellBank, and Collecte Localisation Satellites - Argos system (CLS-Argos), supporting  the mission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature - Species Survival Commission Marine Turtle Specialist Group (IUCN-SSC MTSG) to develop conservation strategies for targeted marine turtle recovery.

The BC4T objectives are to: 1) integrate movement and genetic data across species and regions to produce new insights into marine turtle connectivity, and 2) catalyze a community-driven process to establish IMTAs. IMTAs and the protections they can support for marine turtles are urgently needed, with many marine turtle populations facing significant threats and major global policy deadlines approaching, including the 30x30 Target and the entry into force of the BBNJ Agreement.

Funding opportunity: the BC4T Small Grants Fund

We are pleased to announce the opening of the 2025 Blue Corridors for Turtles (BC4T) Small Grants Fund, with applications due by 31 January 2026.

Learn here how to apply for a BC4T Small Grant

BC4T Small Grants will support projects that address data gaps in marine turtle connectivity, with the objective of beginning to fill these gaps ahead of a community-wide effort to establish Important Marine Turtle Areas (IMTAs). Therefore, proposals should relate to one or more of the three central data themes of the BC4T project: nesting and foraging distributions, migratory connectivity, and genetic connectivity. 

This year, SWOT, in conjunction with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Wildlife Computers, will award $35,000 USD and five satellite transmitters. Proposals will be reviewed by an interorganizational panel of representatives from SWOT (Oceanic Society), WWF, and the University of Queensland.

Call for satellite tracking, nesting and genetic data

The Blue Corridors for Turtles project seeks to bring together the marine turtle community to compile the vast amount of data on distribution, movements and genetics of marine turtles into a spatial framework. Focused on all seven species of marine turtles at a global scale, the project seeks to identify critical habitats to help advance conservation strategies and enforcement measures for targeted and effective interventions that support marine turtle recovery worldwide.

Therefore, we seek your support and willingness to share your raw (or processed) telemetry data, to be involved in verifying and updating nesting data localities, and in the proposal of IMTAs. An initial telemetry data call was made in February 2025, and a second with additional nesting and genetic data requests on 20 November 2025. If you are willing to contribute to the data calls, we would encourage sharing this opportunity with your in-country network and disseminate the Information Page and Data Submission Forms. 

We encourage you to submit data by 31 March 2026. After this date, the focus will be on integrating movement and genetic data into connectivity analyses beginning in April 2026. Timely submission will help ensure that our data team has sufficient opportunity for syntheses in advance of regional workshops driving proposals for Important Marine Turtle Areas (IMTAs). It is envisioned as a process overseen by the IUCN-SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group and anticipated to begin in October 2026.

Please note that this project works in close collaboration with existing databases and platforms, including TurtleNet, which was developed in partnership with CMS. BC4T is not envisioned as a long-term repository for turtle data; accordingly, for any individual contributions, data owners are encouraged to share their data back into relevant global and/or regional databases.

Shared data will not be further distributed, communicated, or used for publishing, unless with prior consent. All data used will be fully acknowledged in any product published or otherwise made publicly available.

Please refer to the Terms of Reference for data use and Frequently Asked Questions about the project. If you have any other questions, please contact the Blue Corridors Core Team at [email protected].