The Navigator
The Navigator
Every Tembo design begins with a specific animal.
The Navigator is a sea turtle photographed in Moʻorea, French Polynesia.
The geometric art was drawn from observation. The arc of the shell, the reach of the front flippers, the angle of the head: each line corresponds to something observed. Nothing was invented.
The turtle was in the lagoon at Moʻorea, moving slowly along the reef.
They navigate using the Earth's magnetic field. A sea turtle hatched on a specific beach carries that location encoded in its biology. Decades later, crossing an ocean, it returns to that beach to nest.
Mike Mezeul II made the photograph in Moʻorea’s lagoon. The turtle did not linger.
Six of the seven sea turtle species are threatened or endangered. Three are Critically Endangered.
They have survived 100 million years of planetary change. Asteroid impacts, ice ages, rising and falling seas. The past two centuries have done more damage than the preceding million.
Bycatch in fishing gear kills thousands each year. Coastal development eliminates nesting beaches. Rising temperatures skew hatchling sex ratios. Plastic is ingested and mistaken for prey.
The Kemp's ridley was filmed nesting by the thousands in 1947. Today the entire global nesting population numbers under 20,000 females.
WildAid works on the demand side of wildlife loss.
Sea turtle eggs and shells remain in illegal trade across multiple regions. Reducing the market reduces the incentive to poach. Their marine programs work across Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific. the regions where sea turtle trade is most active.
30% of profits from every Navigator purchase goes directly to WildAid.
from every purchase
goes directly to WildAid