Many of the Native Oceans communities have made significant contributions to achieving a sustainable future for both turtles and their own communities by preserving and nurturing relationships with the sea, collaborating globally, and working to fortify the values and traditions relating to the sea turtle that preserve their cultural identity. To help them understand and collaborate with each otherʼs work, and, to expose this work to the Symposium as a whole, several council events were held. The public session in the town plaza where the Seri formally welcomed each indigenous nation and the participants
exchanged music, art, stories, questions and information about their homelands and
projects was the highlight of the weekʼs events for many of the Council members.
 The Council reflected on the historical and contemporary realities of indigenous coastal
communities where the sea turtle has great economic, cultural and spiritual significance. They described their relationships with the oceans, the land and sea turtles, and how changes in the ocean have required them to make cultural and economic adaptations.
They compared notes on how their knowledge has been integrated into western scientific understanding. In some cases, this has been a healthy exchange, and in others it has not. There have already been quantifiable outcomes. The Seri are well established in their Native Oceans Council conservation efforts and have made a formal decision to eliminate turtle from their diet. This sacrifice of their most significant source of tribal protein made a huge impact the Tobians and Australians that still rely on the sea turtle as a nutritional source. The Seri themselves have determined to work toward a unification of their conservation efforts and recently made the tribeʼs first formal presentation (with multi-media equipment given to them by ISTS) to CDI, Mexicoʼs federal indigenous support agency. They are applying for over $200,000 in additional support for their community development and conservation programs.