In 1966, Marlon Brando bought Tetiaroa after filming Mutiny on the Bounty; now it is a wildlife sanctuary where 15,614 turtle hatchlings emerged

Marlon Brando bought the Pacific atoll Tetiaroa in 1966. Decades later, it is a turtle sanctuary where over 15,600 hatchlings are estimated to have emerged.

Most people have a place they would like to protect forever. For actor Marlon Brando, that place was Tetiaroa, a remote South Pacific coral atoll. He first saw it while filming Mutiny on the Bounty and bought it in 1966. Today, decades later, the atoll is a turtle sanctuary. The Tetiaroa Society's February 2026 newsletter reports that more than 15,600 green sea turtle hatchlings are estimated to have hatched there in the 2024-25 season.

From movie set to turtle sanctuary

Marlon Brando, best known as Vito Corleone in The Godfather, bought Tetiaroa in 1966. It is now a conservation site for green sea turtles. (@marlonbrando/Instagram)

The atoll lies 30 miles north of Tahiti and consists of 12 small coral islets around a lagoon. A scientific team first saw a hatchling emerge there 20 years ago, the newsletter notes. That early work turned into a monitoring program, now led by Te Mana o te Moana with assistance from the Polynesian Environment Directorate. Initially, the team found only 10 to 15 nests. Today it monitors more than 1,400 turtle tracks.

Brando himself is credited with protecting the atoll's turtles starting in 1974, according to a poster from the research group Te Mana o te Moana, which has run the atoll's formal scientific survey since 2007. The atoll also received a Hope Spot designation in 2019 from oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle and Mission Blue. This is important because the female turtles return to lay eggs where they were hatched. The nesting season is about October to April.

What the latest season showed

Green sea turtle hatchlings make their way across the sand toward the ocean.

The total is estimated. The research poster explains how the team is counting. It uses empty eggshells and live hatchlings that it sees. A track does not always indicate a nest. The poster says 1,316 crawls in 2017-18 produced 503 nests with eggs and 690 false crawls.

What years of data revealed

The poster, “Eleven Years Survey of Green Sea Turtle Nesting on Tetiaroa Atoll in French Polynesia,” covers 2007 to 2018. During that period, the team recorded more than 3,740 tracks and 1,488 nests containing eggs. It estimated over 120,000 hatchlings with about 93% hatching success. The main predators were crabs, hermit crabs, and rats. Some hatchlings required assistance. In 2017-18, researchers found 873 stuck in their nests, and 23 were taken to a turtle clinic on Moorea.

The poster also points out that resort villas were built well back from the beaches. Tracks on the resort’s islet grew roughly sevenfold after the hotel opened, it reports. It also notes that the numbers vary from year to year. This is not proof that the rise was caused by the resort. Satellite tracking added some more detail. From 2011 to 2018, eight tracking programs showed females swimming west, mostly toward the waters around Fiji. One tagged female was tracked for 208 days and traveled more than 3,500 kilometers.

A warming world is the next test

Rising heat is a major concern. Sand temperature determines whether the turtle hatchlings will be males or females. Higher temperatures create more females. Dr. Cécile Gaspar, who founded Te Mana o te Moana, warns that rising heat could drive these turtles extinct if nothing changes.

The Society also referred to an initial outcome as good news. After adding nest thermometers, initial results revealed that 54% of the hatchlings were males. While protection gives turtles a head start, it can’t counter climate change on its own, but Tetiaroa shows that consistent, planned effort can give young turtles a better fighting chance.