Amber “Ling” Maready
When asked what Amber loves to spend her time doing, the answer is simple: kids and beach. She loves everything about being surrounded by kids and the ocean, well, it just calls her. She has turned to the ocean for peace since a teenager and she’s never found that peace anywhere else. She will go above and beyond to share conservation education to all of those around her from community outreach, work with local schools and more! She knows that the future of our oceans is in the hands of the youth and she is dedicated to working along side of them to help pave the road to conservation work! You can find Amber in the field nearly every day. When she is back at the lab, she is developing curriculum, planning education outreach, raising funds and implementing new findings. She fell in love with Nicaragua in 2014 and has been traveling back and forth ever since. The people, the culture and the pristine coastline is what she day dreams about!
Taylor Maready
Taylor is the shark guy, the turtle guy, the ocean guy, really. We are convinced that he has salt water in his veins. He has dedicated his life to studying the oceans all over the world. If he is not snorkeling or diving, he is educating, working on new projects or getting involved with ongoing projects inside and outside of Tides of Hope. He has been featured on Natural Geographic, HGTV, local magazines, has worked with the Smithsonian in shark and ray studies, in addition to starting a touch tank aquarium. He is the man behind the development on Project: Tortuga and the Tides of Hope Marine Science Center. He loves spreading his knowledge with kids of all ages! He is a wonderful teacher, mentor and person. Taylor has been living in Nicaragua on and off since 2011. When he is not in Nicaragua, he is doing everything he can to get back to the place that he loves.
Xelena Castrillo
Xelena is the director of Tide of Hope’s Marine Science Center and heads up Project: Tortuga. She started her journey with Tides of Hope when Amber and Taylor were doing conservation work and in the beginning phases of developing the marine science center in Nicaragua. She is one busy human! She is the bridge between Nicaragua and the home base in North Carolina. Her hard work amazes us. She is constantly researching and updating the lab. In addition to lab work and turtle duty, she does daily beach clean-ups and reef care in Redonda Bay! You can find her walking the beach, snorkeling the reef or working in the lab Monday-Saturday!
In addition to her amazing conservation work, she is a mom and law school student.
Geris (on the left)
Geris is our turtle security and night-time eyes for Project: Tortuga. He is quite literally on turtle time.
As we know, many nest boil at night and he is there waiting to collect data, help, if needed, and to ensure that predators are not a factor. He is there most nights from sunset to sunrise. He is a HUGE part of the project and we could not have the data that we do without his hard work and diligent eyes while the rest of us are resting.
Geris has been a part of Project: Tortuga since the beginning phases. His hard work has allowed us to grow rapidly. His dedication to conservation work has been impressive. In addition to working with Project: Tortuga, he enjoys fishing and soccer. Geris and Xelena work very closely together to ensure that data collection is thorough, nest protection is always maintained and that our little friends have the best start to life as possible!
Indy + Vai
Two ocean loving kids who run the show most of the time. These two have been assisting their parents in conservation work since birth. Both have assisted in sea turtle work, like excavating nests and releasing hatchlings, in addition to snorkeling and handling local species.
These two can be found collecting specimen for the lab in tide pools or on paddleboards observing the reef from above.
They are both experienced and well-known microplastic collectors. They are proof that conservation does not know age and no matter your age, location or resources, you can make a difference!