WHERE THE TURTLES ARE

This map gives a global snapshot of 1,167 nesting sites of the endangered green turtle (Chelonia mydas). The species boasts the largest nesting range of all sea turtles.

The map is also the grand-prize winner of this year's International Conservation Mapping Competition. Credit and kudos to Andrew DiMatteo, cartographer and database manager of the State of the World's Sea Turtles (SWOT) Project, and Associate in Research at Duke University. Kudos too to the hundreds of volunteers around the world who over a period of seven years shared their discoveries of nesting sites.

The map was first published in SWOT Report: The State of the World's Sea Turtles, Vol. 6. You can see completed SWOT maps for all sea turtle species here. And you can wend through other winners and notable contenders from the International Conservation Mapping Competition here.

(Green turtle hatchlings. From ScubaZoo.)