Turning the Tide in Ivory Coast: Training 199 Fishers to Save Sea Turtles Caught in Their Nets

This blog is the third in a series of four blog articles that will highlight marine conservation work in Ivory Coast. Follow along for the rest of the series!

It isn’t rare for fishermen in Ivory Coast working the waters off Sassandra and Fresco to accidentally catch a sea turtle in their nets; it’s an occasional, unavoidable reality of casting a net into waters these animals also call home.

What happens in the minutes after that catch can be the difference between a turtle swimming free and a turtle that doesn’t survive the encounter.

That’s exactly the gap Born Free USA set out to close for local communities.

Expert-led Training, Right on the Beach

From July 30 to August 2, 2026, in the same villages where communities had already been introduced to the Marine Species Protection program (see Part 1 and Part 2), Ivory Coast’s Wildlife Authorities (DFRC) returned with a specialist. Colonel Koné Drissa, a sea turtle expert from the Ivorian Parks and Reserves Office (OIPR), led hands-on training sessions on safely handling and releasing a sea turtle caught in fishing gear, and on exactly who to contact and what to report if it happens.

Eight sessions across eight coastal villages reached 199 fishermen. With local translators on hand in every village, the sessions became a genuine exchange between fisherman and government authorities. Fishermen shared their own encounters with accidentally captured turtles, and Colonel Drissa was able to incorporate that lived experience into his training.

Extending the Message Beyond the Room

Training 199 fishers in the field is powerful, but Born Free USA and DFRC didn’t stop there. A radio spot ran on the regional radio station, broadcast in Godié and Neyo, the local languages of the region, in Fanti for the Ghanaian-origin fishing community, and in French, airing multiple times a day to reach fishermen who couldn’t attend a session in person. The team also distributed 50 information signboards for display in villages, a lasting, visible reminder long after the training team had moved on.

And on August 12, 2026, this work paid off: a critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle accidentally trapped in nets, was rescued by community members designated to monitor the coast in the village of Arokpa in the Sassandra department.

How You Can help

These trainings only happen because supporters make them possible by funding the experts, the travel, the translators, and the materials that turn a village session into 199 fishers who now know exactly what to do.

Support our work to help bring this training to more coastal communities across Ivory Coast.

More from this Series

Part One: On the Trail of Turtles: Mapping Hidden Nesting Beaches in Ivory Coast

Part Two: 331 Coastal Voices: Building Committees to Protect Marine Life in Ivory Coast

Part Four: Sweeping the Shoreline: Communities Unite Against Plastic Pollution, One Bottle at a Time – Coming soon!

Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Alice