November 2005 New San Francisco laws protects Latina and Chinese women from mercury in fish as San Francisco passes countywide multilingual Prop 65 Law to warn mothers and children at urging of GotMercury.org

November 2005 Spanish mercury-in-seafood calculator is released by GotMercury.org so more people can be protected from methylmercury in fish.

October 2005 Under pressure from GotMercury.org, Safeway, the nation's fifth largest grocery store chain, expanded its mercury in seafood health warnings nationwide. Previously, Safeway only posted mercury in fish warnings in California, as required under state law Proposition 65. Now, women and children in Safeway stores will receive fish advisories at seafood counters based on an existing federal health advisory.

May 2005 1,007 scientists call for UN moratorium on longline fishing in the Pacific. scientists from 97 countries signed a petition to the UN.

March 2005 Costa Rica, Croatia, and Sweden join 800 scientists from 83 countries and 230 environmental organizations from 54 countries in urging the United Nation's Convention on the Law of Sea to address the issue of longlines and leatherbacks.

December 2004 As a result of STRP, Morton's Restaurant agrees to withdraw swordfish from their menus to respond to growing concerns about human health and mercury contamination in seafood.

November 2004 STRP's www.GotMercury.org web site receives over 300,000 hits in the first six months.

June 2004 STRP attends the United Nation's Convention on the Law of Sea to call for a moratorium on industrial longline fishing.

May 2004 STRP's Mercury Awareness Campaign launches the first web site to contain a comprehensive seafood in mercury calculator which allows the public to personally gauge mercury exposure from longline-caught tuna and swordfish.

April 2004 STRP's Central American Director, Randall Arauz, wins the U.K.'s top conservation prize, the Whitley Gold Award.

March 2004 The U.S. Fisheries Service issues new rules banning California longline fishing on the high seas in the Pacific Ocean.

February 2004 STRP, Director Stanley M. Minasian, Earth Views Productions, and the Center for Biological Diversity release the new documentary, "Last Journey for the Leatherback?" at the 24th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Conservation and Biology in San Jose, Costa Rica.

February 2004 Costa Rican President issues a proclamation to initiate the creation of the Cocos-Baulas Corridor, after consultation with STRP and our sister organization, PRETOMA. This Corridor will protect marine natural resources and wildlife, including the critically endangered leatherback.

January 2004 STRP partners with the nation's largest advertising agency, DDB Worldwide, to launch a national media campaign about the looming extinction of the Pacific leatherback sea turtle.

November 2003 STRP survey reveals majority of California groceries are not posting Prop 65 health warning signs or improperly posting them at seafood counters.

September 2003 STRP joins lawsuit to protect Okinawan dugong from construction of US military heliport.

August 2003 STRP legal action leads to federal court ruling that California high seas longline fishery is violating the Endangered Species Act.

February 2003 Leading scientists and NGOs call on UN to institute a moratorium on longlining in the Pacific.

January 2003 STRP undercover investigation convinces California Attorney General to sue seafood retailers over failure to post Proposition 65 health warning signs.

August 2002 STRP merges with Texas-based HEART and opens Gulf of Mexico Office.

April 2002 STRP convenes the International Leatherback Survival Conference where scientists call for a moratorium on Pacific longlining and gillnetting.

April 2002 STRP legal action forces California to close Central Coast gillnet fishery to protect sea turtles and other marine species.

June 2000 STRP and two other environmental groups close 2 million square miles of ocean to Hawaii-based longliners as a result of successive court orders. The closure is expected to remain in place through the middle of 2004.

April 2000 STRP's grassroots public action campaign targeting Texas Governor George W. Bush (including full-page ads, thousands of letters and phone calls, a letter from prominent scientists, and protests) catalyzes the inclusion of a shrimp closure (to protect sea turtles) in proposed fishing regulations.

April 2000 STRP's full-page ad in the New York Times and protest in front of the Japanese consulate combine with the efforts of other environmental and animal welfare groups help defeat a proposal at CITES by Japan and Cuba to reopen the trade in endangered hawksbill shells.

December 1999 STRP completes fourth year of its community-based egg hatchery program in Costa Rica which has resulted in 40,000 olive ridley, green, hawksbill, and leatherback hatchlings being released to the sea.

November 1999 STRP's grassroots campaign focusing on the impacts of economic globalization on sea turtles culminates at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle where 240 people dress in sea turtle costumes to protest in the streets.

May 1999 The Sea Turtle Restoration Project moves under the fiscal sponsorship of Turtle Island Restoration Network, a newly formed nonprofit organization incorporated in California.

March 1998 Produced half-hour educational documentary entitled Ancient Sea Turtles Stranded in a Modern World.

May 1996 Helped win the permanent protection of Nicaragua's most important turtle nesting beach and adjacent wildlands by designating it as a National Wildlife Refuge; built and provided funding of a field station and personnel at this beach.

December 1995 Won a groundbreaking lawsuit requiring all nations who wish to export wild shrimp to the US to use turtle-protective methods; 17 nations have now improved their fishing practices to meet the requirements.

October 1994 Launched the first seafood eco-certification and consumer education program to promote a market for shrimp caught by responsible fishers using the best available environmental technology.

July 1994 Successfully pressured Japan to end its CITES reservation on continuing trade in sea turtles through legal action, coalition building, and orchestrating an international media campaign.

April 1994 Provided numerous training opportunities and programs to biologists in Latin America. Assisted several communities in the development of locally controlled sea turtle egg hatchery programs and conducted environmental education in the villages.

January 1994 Worked with environmentalists in India to internationalize the movement to protect Bhitar Kanika reserve, one of the world's largest olive ridley nesting beaches, and home to a wide array of wildlife, including endangered crocodiles and large populations of wading birds.

June 1993 Encouraged Turtle Excluder Device use worldwide, including producing an award-winning video for fishery managers and shrimp fishers in cooperation with UNEP, distributed internationally by the US Information Agency and EPA.

June 1991 Produced half-hour educational documentary Ancient Sea Turtles: The Last Voyage.

May 1990 Organized international pressure on Mexico to end the commercial killing of sea turtles, including the annual slaughter of 50,000 endangered turtles and to join the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) through grassroots mobilization, coalition building, orchestrating a media campaign including op-ed articles in the New York Times, and release of video to national media; convinced Mexico to convert the Oaxaca slaughterhouse to a sea turtle natural history museum as a local source of revenue for displaced turtle hunters.