Marlon Brando's paradise gave 15,600 baby turtles a start

More than 15,600 green sea turtles hatched on Tetiaroa Atoll in French Polynesia between 2024 and 2025, according to a February 2026 report from the nonprofit Tetiaroa Society, which counted 161 nests with data from the association Te Mana o Te Moana. The 1,445-acre atoll owes its protection to Marlon Brando, who fell for the place while filming Mutiny on the Bounty in 1962 and secured a 99-year lease to keep it largely untouched. "For Marlon, Tetiaroa was his paradise," his estate co-executor Mike Medavoy told The Hollywood Reporter. "It was a place for him to get away from everything." Brando died in 2004, and his estate later opened an eco-resort that doubles as a nature preserve. The green sea turtles, called Honu in Tahitian, return to nest each year between September and March. Some hatched here have been tracked swimming all the way to Fiji.