2-8. Caribbean Conservation Corporation Newsletter

Transcription

1 David Godfrey / CCC Caribbean Conservation Corporation Newsletter Using Science-based Conservation to Protect Sea Turtles and Their Habitats Since 1959 Issue 3, 2009 After 50 Years, CCC and Sea Turtles Still Attract Passionate Supporters Sea turtles always seem to attract passionate supporters, from Archie and his students, to the founders of the CCC, to the hundreds of spectators who turned up this past August to watch the release of Dory from Disney s Vero Beach Resort. To follow the migration of Dory and the other participants in this year s Tour de Turtles, visit ifty years ago this year, three men of vastly different backgrounds were brought together by a shared concern for sea turtles to form the first organization in the world dedicated to studying and protecting these remarkable marine species. Joshua B. Powers, a man of influence in the field of publishing, was the first to begin assembling members of what he called The Brotherhood of the Green Turtle. John H. Phipps, a philanthropist in Florida, lent his financial backing and business savvy to the new organization, which he suggested incorporating under the name Caribbean Conservation Corporation. The man guiding CCC s scientific and conservation mission was Dr. Archie Carr, the world s leading authority on sea turtles. Without the unique contributions of each of these individuals, the CCC never would have come into existence and sea turtles would be in greater peril today. The way these three men teamed up to form the CCC in 1959 is a story that corresponds to the rise of a conservation ethic in America. Together, they planted the seeds of a movement to protect sea turtles that now spans the globe. Theirs is the first in a seemingly endless chain of stories of people from all walks of life who have been moved by the mystery and charisma of sea turtles and called to action on their behalf. Everyone who endeavors to preserve a component of nature is at some point confronted with the question of why a certain thing is worth saving. In answering this ubiquitous question, Archie Carr wrote: You cannot argue the case for saving any wilderness on the grounds of practicality alone. If this diffi cult saving is to be done, it will be because man is the creature who preserves things that stir him Bore through to the core of what is required and you see that it is an aggressive stewardship of relics, of samples of original order, of objects and organizations of cosmic craft. This work will take staunch people. Dr. Carr understood that the saving of sea turtles, or any other aspect of nature, can not be continued on page 2... CCC Timeline 2-8 Places by David Ehrenfeld 4 Tortuguero Update 6

2 ...from cover justified purely by economics or the measurable utility a particular creature provides for mankind. While sea turtles do play critical roles in sustaining marine ecosystems that produce vital benefits to humans, the most compelling case for saving them can not be constructed on these points alone. The real reasons for preserving sea turtles are impossible to quantify, which means large numbers of dedicated, articulate people must continually make their case for survival. Fortunately, sea turtles have an uncanny ability to bring together people of diverse backgrounds with a shared passion to save these amazing animals. In the half century since CCC s formation, a continuous stream of people has risen in defense of sea turtles. None of the great victories and encouraging progress on behalf of sea turtles and their habitats would have occurred without resolute people stirred to contribute their time, money, knowledge and passion 2 Issue 1950 Dr. Archie Carr begins studying sea turtles. 3, Green Turtle Tagging and Monitoring Program begins at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, under direction of Dr. Carr. toward the fulfillment of CCC s mission. As the Caribbean Conservation Corporation celebrates its 50th anniversary and reflects on a long record of success, we acknowledge and thank the countless individuals who have responded to the call to action to save sea turtles. It is impossible in this short space to list everyone who has made a lasting contribution to sea turtle conservation, but you know who you are. You are the reason CCC has survived for 50 years, and your staunch support is helping sea turtles survive and thrive around the world. Thank you. By David Godfrey CCC Executive Director 1956 Sabine Bernert In August, the 2009 Tour de Turtles migration marathon began its second year. Dr. Archie Carr first began tracking sea turtles by attaching metal tags to nesting females and offering a reward for the return of a found tag. He mapped the return locations on a map that hangs in CCC s office, a reminder of where sea turtle tracking began. Today, CCC continues the flipper tagging started by Dr. Carr, but our methods for tracking sea turtles and their migratory pathways have greatly advanced. When Dr. Carr attached balloons to the backs of turtles and perched himself on a lookout tower to see where they went, he could only dream that one day CCC researchers would be using Earth orbiting satellites to monitor turtles, and that his push-pin map would evolve into an interactive map available for the world to see with just the click of a mouse. Follow the marathon migration of 11 sea turtles from their nesting to unknown feeding grounds at Dr. Carr publishes his book The Windward Road on the plight of sea turtles. This book inspired the creation of the Brotherhood of the Green Turtle. VELADOR {bel.a.dor} In Caribbean cultures, Velador translates as one who stands vigil originally referring to turtle and egg harvesters who waited at night for turtles to come ashore. Now CCC claims this title for its newsletter, and around the Caribbean, CCC s researchers and volunteers are replacing poachers as the new veladors. The Velador is published for members and supporters of the nonprofi t Caribbean Conservation Corporation. CCC is dedicated to the conservation of sea turtles through research, advocacy, education and the protection of the habitats upon which they depend. Executive Director David Godfrey Director of International Policy Marydele Donnelly Scientifi c Director Dr. Emma Harrison Outreach & Field Programs Coordinator Dan Evans Policy Coordinator Gary Appelson Costa Rica Director Roxana Silman Controller Pat McCloskey Offi ce Manager Kim Aslan Membership Coordinator Kimberly Johnson Communications Coordinator Rocio Johnson Barrier Island Ecosystem Center Manager of Education & Volunteers Leslie Sprague Accounting Assistant Audrey Kennedy Membership Assistant Merna Wimsatt Tortuguero Field Coordinators Clare Atkinson and Laura Berrondo Tortuguero Station Manager Juan Carlos Cordero Tortuguero Visitor Center Coordinator Katherine Rodriguez Chiriquí Beach Field Coordinator Cristina Ordoñez San José Offi ce Assistant Maria Laura Castro Caribbean Conservation Corporation 4424 NW 13th Street, Suite B-11 Gainesville, Florida Phone: (352) Fax: (352) ccc@cccturtle.org Website:

3 Neil Osbourne Places By Dr. David Ehrenfeld n awareness of places doesn t always come naturally. In my case it was definitely an acquired trait. The place was Tortuguero, in Costa Rica. I had gone there as a graduate student, sent by my major professor, the late Archie Carr. He was one of the great conservation ists of our time and a remarkable teacher, but he didn t teach conser vation by any formal process of instruction. He was too smart for that. Instead, he taught about places through direct experience and let his students feelings of conservation develop spontaneously, as they almost invariably did. The beginning of my introduction to places was not in Tortuguero at all, but in Gainesville, Florida, where I had come to study zoology with Dr. Carr. It was my first day there, and it was summer, hot and humid. My new medical diploma from Harvard was in my suitcase and I was wearing a tie and jacket. I was terribly out of place, the way only a person who doesn t have a good feeling for places can be. Archie greeted me as if he had been waiting eagerly for my arrival for years. (Even after I had been around long enough to learn that he greeted everybody that way, those greetings still made me feel good.) When the formalities were over, a matter of maybe a minute, he said: Ehrenfeld, have you ever seen an alligator nest? I hadn t. There weren t any in Boston. Nor in northern New Jersey, where I grew up. In five minutes we were plunging through the vegetation along the shore of Lake Alice, at the southern end of the University of Florida s campus. I was still wearing my jacket and tie. The alligator nest, when we reached it, looked like a haphazard pile of mud and sticks. I don t remember whether Archie uncovered any of the elongated white eggs to show me; probably he did. What I do remember is that he pointed out the mother alligator floating about fifty feet offshore, and told me to watch her. Then, while I watched, he began to make a soft, croaking, chuckling, grunting noise. Soon, the alligator swung around toward us and moved closer to shore. That s the noise alligator hatchlings make, said Archie. When they hatch out, the mother hears them and comes to release them from the nest and protect them. They stay with her a year or two... He resumed croaking. The alligator came a little clos The Brotherhood is incorporated as the nonprofit Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC). Dr. Carr s research in Tortuguero falls under the management of CCC and has continued through today making it the longest continuous study of its kind in the world. er and then stopped. Apparently she was getting used to Professor Carr s impersonations, and was no longer impressed. After a while, we left. That night, as I was dropping off to sleep, I wondered why Archie had taken me to look at an alligator nest before introducing me to his colleagues or showing me around the lab. I couldn t figure it out. Only years later did it occur to me that this was a proper introduction to a place visiting a typical part of the landscape and meeting its oldest inhabitants. Alligators, after all, are just an advanced kind of dinosaur. And knowing Archie and his delight in the comic, he probably also wanted to see me in my tie and jacket up against that alligator nest. But at the time I wasn t aware of these things. It took another kind of reptile to teach me about places and conservation. It was Archie s intention, and mine, that I would do my doctoral research on the orientation and navigation of sea turtles, the so-called green turtle (Chelonia mydas), at Tortuguero, the great nesting beach along Costa Rica s Caribbean coast. Archie s research had proved that green turtles are philopatric nesters; that is, they return to the same place to nest every two, three, or four years, often swimming many hundreds of miles to get there. Any turtle we found nesting at Tortuguero we measured, described, and marked with a numbered metal tag attached to a front flipper and bearing Archie s address and an offer of a reward for its return. That way we recognized turtles who had been on the beach before, and the tag returns from turtle fishermen told us where the turtles went after they left Tortuguero. Because the turtles come out to nest after dark, much of my work was done at night. There was a great deal of waiting between turtles, plenty of time to sit on a driftwood log and think. In the first years of my research I was often the only one on the beach for miles. After ten or twenty minutes of sitting without using my flashlight, my eyes adapted to the dark and I could make out forms against the brown black sand: the beach plum and coconut 1968 Juvenile green sea turtle tagging and research program begins in Bermuda. Program was initiated by board member Dr. H. Clay Frick, Jr. continued on next page CCC works with Costa Rica to establish the Tortuguero National Park, which protects the most important green turtle rookery in the hemisphere. Caribbean Conservation Corporation 3

4 palm silhouettes in back, the flicker of the surf in front, sometimes even the shadowy outline of a trailing railroad vine or the scurry of a ghost crab at my feet. The air was heavy and damp with a distinctive primal smell that I can remember but not describe. The rhythmic roar of the surf a few feet away never ceased my favorite sound. I hear it as I write in my landlocked office in New Jersey. And then, with ponderous, dramatic slowness, a giant turtle would emerge from the sea. Usually I would see the track first, a vivid black line standing out against the lesser blackness, like the swath of a bulldozer. If I was closer, I could hear the animal s deep hiss of breath and the sounds of her undershell scraping over logs. If there was a moon, I might see the light glistening off the parabolic curve of the still wet shell. Size at The dark sand beach of Tortuguero represents the largest green sea turtle nesting site in the Western Hemisphere. night is hard to determine: even the sprightly 180-pounders, probably nesting for the first time, looked big when nearby, but the 400 pound ancients, with shells nearly four feet long, were colossal in the darkness. Then when the excavations of the body pit and egg cavity were done, if I slowly parted the hind flippers of the now-oblivious turtle, I could watch the perfect white spheres falling and falling into the flask-shaped pit scooped into the soft sand. Falling as they have fallen for a hundred million years, with the same slow cadence, always shielded from the rain or stars by the same massive bulk with the beaked head and the same large, myopic eyes rimmed with crusts of sand washed out by tears. Minutes and hours, days and months dissolve into eons. I am on an Oligocene beach, an Eocene beach, a Cretaceous beach the scene is the same. It is night, the turtles are coming back, always back; I hear a deep hiss of breath and catch a glint of wet shell as the continents slide and crash, the oceans form and grow. The turtles were coming here before here was here. At Tortuguero I learned the meaning of place, and began to understand how it is bound up with time. I also learned what it means to have to stand by while a place is damaged. What it means to watch while the forest behind the beach is exploited by ignorant opportunists with foreign capital. What it means to watch while a tagged turtle, one we have found nesting at the same spot three times in a decade, crawls slowly down the beach back to the water, where a dozen turtle fishing boats are waiting just beyond the surf. Although my awareness of the need for conservation came slowly as a result of many experiences, I associate it especially with one night at Tortuguero. There were four or five of us walking the beach, including Archie and Jose Figueres, better known as Don Pepe, the leader of the revolution, liberator of Costa Rica, and first president of the only nonmilitarized democracy of any size on the planet. There was no guard; none was needed. It was Don Pepe s first visit to the legendary Tortuguero we had been watching a green turtle nest, also a first for him. EI Presidente, a short, Napoleonic man with boundless energy, was enjoying himself enormously. Both he and Archie were truly charismatic people, and they liked and respected each other. Each was fluent in the other s language. The rest of us went along quietly, enjoying the show. As we walked up the beach toward the boca, where the Rio Tortuguero meets the sea, Don Pepe questioned Dr. Carr about the green turtles and their need for conservation. How important was it to make Tortuguero a sanctuary? Just then, a flashlight picked out a strange sight up ahead. A turtle was on the beach, near the waterline, trailing something. And behind her was a line of eggs which, for some reason, she was depositing on the bare, unprotected sand. We hurried to see what the problem was. When we got close, it was all too apparent. The entire undershell of the turtle had been cut away by poachers who were after the calipee, or cartilage, to dry and sell to the European turtle soup manufacturers. Not interested in the meat or eggs, they had evidently then flipped her back on her belly for sport, to see where she would crawl. What she was trailing was her intestines. The poachers had probably been frightened away by our lights only minutes before. 4 Issue 1987 Dr. Archie Carr dies. 3, U.S. Congress establishes the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in Florida in honor of CCC s founder, protecting the most important loggerhead turtle rookery in the hemisphere CCC begins the Sea Turtle Survival League to conduct education and advocacy on behalf of U.S. sea turtle populations, especially in Florida CCC opens the John H. Phipps Biological Field Station in Tortuguero, replacing the 30-year-old Casa Verde Green Turtle Research Station.

5 Dr. Carr, who knew sea turtles better than any human being on earth and who had devoted much of his life to their protection, said nothing. He looked at Don Pepe, and so did I. It was a moment of revelation. Don Pepe was very, very angry, trembling with rage. This was his country, his place. He had risked his life for it fighting in the Cerro de la Muerte. The turtles were part of this place, even part of its name, Tortuguero; they had been coming here long before people existed in Central America. He understood that, just as he understood the profound significance of the useless, round, white eggs swept by the retreating wavelets down the packed sand into, the surf beyond. No green turtle born at Tortuguero will ever lay her eggs anywhere else. She was home, laying her eggs for the last time. Today there are far more green turtles at Tortuguero than there were when Don Pepe made his first visit, thanks to him, to other enlightened citizens of his remarkable country, and above all to Archie Carr. I haven t been back since No time, the cost of flying a family of six to San Jose these are the sorts of excuses I make. CCC s 50th Anniversary 1996 CCC launches its website and initiates the Sea Turtle Migration-Tracking Education Program the first Internet-based education program to use the satellite tracking of sea turtles to raise awareness about sea turtles. Dr. Carr looks at the remains of a green sea turtle. Sea turtles were commonly killed for their meat, calipee or eggs when Dr. Carr fi rst arrived in Tortuguero. But the real reason is more selfish. How will Tortuguero be with electric ity and vacation cabins, with a road to Tortuguero Village, without Archie or Sheftan Martinez or Bertie Downs or Miss Sibella, and with all those eager new conservationists crowding the black beach at night? Will it be the same place? Will I enjoy being there? Of course I know the answer is yes. Places can be destroyed, that is, they can have their nature and meaning irrevocably changed and their connection with the past severed. All conservationists are aware of that. This hasn t happened at Tortuguero. It has changed, but it is still the same place. When I do go back, as I must because places get in your blood, I know I will still be able to find a log on the beach to sit on alone in the darkness, and with luck will see a dim, rounded form heaving itself out of the nearby sea. Dr. David Ehrenfeld is a conservation writer and CCC Board Member who will be keynote speaker at CCC s 50th Anniversary Gala in November. This story reprinted from Beginning Again: People and Nature in the New Millennium, Oxford University Press, Through your membership and support of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, you have helped sustain the longest sea turtle conservation efforts in the world. On November 12, 2009, we invite you to join us as we celebrate five decades of successful sea turtle conservation at the 50th Anniversary Gala in New York City. We hope you can attend, but if you are unable to make it to New York in November, we ask you to make a special contribution in honor of CCC s anniversary. Whether you can donate $50, $500 or $5,000, your support will help us continue protecting sea turtles into the next half century. What: Caribbean Conservation Corporation 50th Anniversary Gala When: Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009 at 7 pm Where: The Harvard Club, 35 West 44th Street, New York City, NY Price: $125 per person Featuring heavy hors d oeuvres, cocktails, silent auction, awards, and special guest speakers: Dr. David Ehrenfeld and Dr. Archie Carr, III. To purchase tickets or learn more about sponsorship opportunities, please visit us online at For additional inquiries, please call Rocio Johnson at or rocio@cccturtle.org CCC leads a successful campaign to establish the CCC and others file a Florida Sea Turtle Specialty License Plate, which will lawsuit in Costa Rica, fund Florida s Marine Turtle Protection Program and which successfully establish the Sea Turtle Grants Program to provide places a ban on all turtle funding for projects benefiting Florida sea turtles. harvesting in Costa Rica. 5 Caribbean Conservation Corporation

6 Tortuguero Update Continuing the Fight against the Illegal Harvest of Sea Turtles in Tortuguero 2000 CCC leads successful efforts to block the reopening of international trade in the shells of critically endangered sea turtles. CCC begins satellite tracking green and hawksbill sea turtles from Tortuguero. CCC initiates the Free the Beach Campaign. 6 Issue 3, 2009 CC has been studying and protecting the sea turtles of Tortuguero, Costa Rica, for a half century, while simultaneously working with local community members to change the way in which they derive benefits from the turtles. Without the involvement of local stakeholders, this project never could have become the renowned success story it is today. However, despite very positive trends in green turtle nesting, and despite strong support from the majority of Tortuguero residents, there remain several worrisome threats to the Tortuguero nesting colony. Back in the 1950s, when Dr. Archie Carr first came to Tortuguero, many of the turtles crawling ashore to nest met their fate at the hands of veladors, who killed nearly every turtle they could catch for its meat or calipee (the fat prized as a delicacy). In addition, the majority of eggs deposited on the beach were taken for consumption. Dr. Carr knew this scenario would lead to the extinction of Tortuguero s turtles, as had happened at nesting beaches throughout the Caribbean. Long-term efforts by CCC, the government of Costa Rica and the people of Tortuguero gradually improved the outlook for green turtles. The nesting beach itself was protected through the creation of Tortuguero National Park in 1970, and new laws limiting and then banning turtle harvesting offered direct protection for the turtles. Slowly, local attitudes about sea turtles also changed, especially as citizens began to recognize the financial benefits and jobs created as eco-tourists began coming to see Tortuguero s famed turtles. When compared to other turtle nesting colonies that don t have the advantage of nesting within a heavily monitored protected area, the turtles of Tortuguero have suffered minimal human impacts in modern times. And that, probably more than any other factor, has enabled green turtle nesting at Tortuguero to increase by nearly 500% over the last few decades. Given these positive trends at Tortuguero, it is very disheartening that CCC is seeing an increase in illegal turtle and egg taking at this renowned beach. Even after 50 years of incredibly hard work to rescue Tortuguero s green turtles from the brink of extinction, there remains a minority of people who are either ignorant or indifferent to the effects that killing adult females, or taking eggs from the beach, can have on the population. In recent years, the illegal take of turtles and nests has been monitored closely by CCC, and some very worrying signs are appearing. Distinct peaks of poaching activity have been recorded in areas of the beach, even within the boundaries of Tortuguero National Park. So far in 2009, 34 green turtles have been taken from the beach; of these 58.8% were within Tortuguero National Park. CCC works closely with the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications (MINAET), which is responsible for ensuring the protection of flora and fauna within the National Park. We provide documented information relating to illegal take of turtles and eggs, which helps the agency focus on poaching hot spots. CCC also provides periodic funding for additional park rangers during the nesting season, which increases the number of people available to conduct patrols and ensure enforcement of the environmental laws. This year, CCC has become aware of a renewed threat to the Tortuguero turtles. Turtle hunters have shifted away from the killing of females on the nesting beach, probably due to increased patrols, and have started hunting them in the nearshore waters using harpoons as was common during Dr. Carr s earliest days in Tortuguero. The turtles are hunted from boats when they arrive to mate, just before the start of the nesting season. When sea turtles are mating they remain at the surface for extended periods of time, making them more vulnerable to the harpoons of the hunters. Three dead green turtles have been found stranded on the beach in 2009; all were adults two males and one female. Often the males are struck with the harpoon and then discarded when the female has been caught; if the harpoon pierces the body cavity through the shell the animal will typically die Turtle hunters in the 1950s. CCC initiates a long-term research and protection program at Chiriquí Beach, Panama, with the goal of protecting and recovering the globally important nesting colonies of leatherback and hawksbill turtles that nest there. CCC begins satellite tracking leatherbacks from Tortuguero, Costa Rica. CCC File Photo

7 Eva Marina Merino Rivera Turtle hunters in Photographic evidence of the hunting of turtles was provided to CCC in July 2009 by a tourist who had been watching a pair of green turtles mating just off the beach. The woman saw a boat appear close to the turtles and was horrified to witness someone launch a harpoon towards them. It is disturbing to compare the 2009 image of a man using a harpoon to hunt turtles off the beach in Tortuguero with a nearly identical image taken in the 1950s (see pho- In Memorium: Chica Maynard CC mourns the passing of Carolien Chica Powers Maynard, a longtime member of CCC s Board of Directors and daughter of CCC co-founder Joshua Powers. Chica passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, at her home in Vermont on July 9th; she was 83. Chica is survived by her husband, Eric Maynard, and three daughters, Carrie Maynard, Heather Leavitt and Robin Maynard Seaver. She also is survived by two grandsons, Asa and Simon Leavitt, as well as numerous cousins, nieces and nephews. Chica was a staunch defender of sea turtles and a loyal friend to CCC. There was never a time in CCC s 50-year history that Chica was not a passionate part of the soul of the organization. She was there as her father first called together the Brotherhood of the Green Turtle, and she carried on the Powers Family s strong influence within CCC throughout her life. A few years ago, as it became more challenging for her to attend Board meetings, Chica cultivated her nephew, Jordan Urstadt, to carry on the family tradition. While the Powers Family will continue to be represented on the Board, there will be a deep void where Chica s cheerful influence propelled everyone associated with CCC to meet any challenge, either 2005 CCC is appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to serve on a new commission charged with reviewing the effectiveness of Florida s coastal policies. CCC employs the use of satellite telemetry to track the movements of Chiriquí Beach leatherbacks. tos). The resurgence of this activity does not bode well. These photos were included in a letter CCC sent to MINAET and the Costa Rican Coast Guard urging increased enforcement efforts offshore. CCC has been incorporated into a multi-agency initiative focused on improving cooperation between agencies and protection for sea turtles along the entire Caribbean coast. CCC has established formal agreements between CCC, MINAET and the Coast Guard that will facilitate efforts to provide support for patrols, equipment or personnel needed to improve law enforcement. These collaborations have highlighted the key role CCC can play in helping improve turtle protection and environmental education throughout the region. Hopefully, our cooperative efforts will help deter the recent surge in illegal poaching, and the photos of men hunting turtles with harpoons will become images of the past not the future. By Dr. Emma Harrison CCC Scientifi c Director those confronting sea turtles or the organization itself. She demanded the highest level of professionalism and commitment from the Board and Staff, and she gave every bit and more in return. Chica loved life and knew how to have fun. She particularly enjoyed traveling to visit CCC s project sites around the Caribbean. During one Board trip to Bermuda, she was thrilled to help catch juvenile green turtles. Even more special to her on that trip was the joy of seeing her grandsons get first-hand experience with sea turtles. She laughed heartily and maintained good humor in all situations. As a CCC Board member, she regularly went above and beyond the call of duty. When CCC was going through a transition in leadership during the early 1990s, Chica relocated to Gainesville, Florida, and volunteered in the home office for an entire summer helping lead the organization through one of its most difficult times. Without a doubt, Chica helped CCC become a global leader in sea turtle conservation, and she will be missed sorely by all who knew her CCC, the Four Seasons Resort Nevis and the Nevis Turtle Group begin a sea turtle research and conservation project to study the migration patterns of hawksbill sea turtles nesting in Nevis. CCC launches International Policy Program, with a focus on reducing sea turtle-fishery interactions. 7 Caribbean Conservation Corporation

8 4424 NW 13th Street, Suite B-11 Gainesville, FL (352) Fax: (352) In honor of Dr. Archie Carr 100th Anniversary of Archie Carr s Birth une 16, 2009, marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Archie F. Carr. Llew Doc Ehrhart, the latest recipient of CCC s Archie Carr Lifetime Achievement Award, hosted a gathering to pay tribute to Dr. Carr s memory. CCC Board president Peggy Cavanaugh and her husband Tom joined about 40 members of the University of Central Florida sea turtle research crew and other members of the marine turtle conservation community to remember Dr. Carr s achievements in science and conservation, and to honor the man. Fittingly, the gathering took place on the beach in the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge amidst dozens of fresh sea turtle tracks. Despite a general awareness of Carr s association with sea turtles, few people today fully understand who Archie was or why he was so important to the world of conservation. Dr. Carr was a revered zoology professor at the University of Florida, the world s leading authority on sea turtles, a brilliant writer of scientific and popular literature, and an internationally acclaimed advocate for conservation. His knowledge of the world s ecosystems remains legendary CCC establishes the Elinor T. Clay Scientific Director Endowment, which supports CCC s Scientific Director. Photos by Jim Stevenson 2008 Brevard County (FL) Environmentally Endangered Lands Program opens Barrier Island Center in the Archie Carr Refuge. CCC is contracted to conduct education and outreach programs at the Center. In 1937, Archie became the first person to receive a doctorate from the University of Florida s zoology department. In 1956, Dr. Carr published his award-winning book, The Windward Road, which alerted the world to the plight of sea turtles and helped spawn a global movement for their protection. The book led to the formation of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation in 1959, the first organization dedicated to protecting sea turtles. It would be a fitting tribute for all of us to reflect, as Archie did, on the wonder of nature and the mystery of sea turtles. To truly honor Archie Carr, however, one need only take up the cause for protecting wildlife and wild places. Archie would be very proud CCC s Tortuguero Green Turtle Program recognized by Smithsonian as one of the world s greatest marine conservation success stories, as studies show nesting has increased by nearly 500%. CCC turns 50!