SeaPics.com at the 28th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology & Conservation
In January, Christine Sheppard and Lynn Webber, employees at SeaPics.com, attended the 2008 International Sea Turtle Symposium in Loreto, Mexico. The Symposium, which is organized by the International Sea Turtle Society, is held every year in a different location around the world to share information about sea turtles and sea turtle conservation efforts. Lynn and Christine, presented information about their own sea turtle education work in Kona, Hawaii, which they do as members of ReefTeach. They also did some networking for SeaPics.com at the conference, which included talking to photographers and publishers. What follows is an account of their trip.
Christine and Lynn departed Kona at midnight on the night of Jan. 18 on a flight for L.A. While at the Kona airport, they happened to run into Jason Williams, the founder of the Hawksbill Recovery Program. As it turned out, he wasn’t on his way to the Sea Turtle Symposium, but was at the airport on other business. They all took the opportunity to chat about their sea turtle conservation efforts, and Lynn volunteered to help guard hawksbill sea turtle nests from people and predators for the Hawksbill Recovery Program.
Christine and Lynn arrived at LAX at 6:30 the morning of the 19th, converted their dollars to Mexican pesos, and headed off on a connecting flight to Loreto. Loreto is a city of around 11,000 people on the Sea of Cortez side of the Baja Penninsula, about 100 miles north of La Paz. It’s a typical Mexican town; dusty, pot-holed roads, broken sidewalks, scruffy-looking dogs looking for scraps, trash everywhere. Anyone who’s been to Mexico has seen a town like this. On the other hand, the townspeople were incredibly friendly and very welcoming.
The main reason the Sea Turtle Symposium was held in Loreto was so the conference could coincide with the 10th anniversary celebration of the Loreto founding of Grupo Tortuguero, a primarily Spanish language association of conservation-minded organizations that promote protection of sea turtles by educating local communities on turtle-safe fishing practices and beach preservation. The International Sea Turtle Society hoped, too, that locating a major international conference in Loreto would show the local community that environmental protection could bring an economic boost to the region and encourage eco-tourism in the surrounding communities.
The Symposium also coincided with a special 4-day cultural event held by the Seri Indians from the Mexican state of Sonora, which is on the east side of the Sea of Cortez, across the sea from Loreto. Representatives from the Seri tribe came to Loreto to perform traditional dances and ceremonies (the Comcaak Ceremony) that revolved around sea turtles, which form an important part of their culture. In their homeland, they would perform these ceremonies on the beaches, where they would dance and escort baby sea turtles to the sea and wish them a safe journey and return. In Loreto, they performed their colorful dances and ceremonies in the town square and used models of sea turtles as a substitute for the real thing. The Seri Indians actually have special permission from the Mexican government to hunt sea turtles for personal consumption, as they have for centuries. Presumably, the International Sea Turtle Society sees the Seri Indians as representatives of responsible harvesters of a sustainable sea turtle resource.
Lynn and Chris spent Saturday, the 19th getting to know the town of Loreto and orienting themselves to the conference site. They volunteered to help with t-shirt sales and conference registration. On that day, too, they met Wallace J. Nichols, the president of the International Sea Turtle Society and principal organizer of the Symposium. He made a particularly memorable impression, as he arrived at the Symposium on a tandem bicycle with his daughter.
The Sea Turtle Symposium, as stated before, is an annual event where interested sea turtle biologists, conservationists and laypeople can share information about sea turtles and their protection. It is attended by people from all over the world, including local people who are concerned with promoting turtle-friendly practices in their community. This year’s event, which covered the week of Jan. 19 to the 26th, featured poster sessions, vendor exhibits, socials, fund-raisers, workshops and oral presentations. While it is impossible to describe all that took place at the Symposium, below is a short summary of some of the major workshops and lectures:
After the whale watch, Christine and Lynn were taken to a restaurant with a nominally gray whale theme. It was decorated with whale vertebrae inside and out, and featured a huge, poorly-preserved stuffed grouper. Outside, there were some turkey vultures sunning themselves, which Lynn took pictures of. The Mexican national bird, the crested caracara, also made an appearance. Interestingly, the crested caracara is not the raptor that appears on the Mexican national flag and official coat of arms. These show a golden eagle with a snake in its mouth and talons, after an Aztec legend that describes the founding of Tenochtitlan, which later became known as Mexico City.
The Monday after the whale watch, Christine was still game for another excursion, so she headed off solo for the Coronado Islands, a Mexican wildlife refuge not far from Loreto. The islands are uninhabited except for a few lighthouse keepers, and boats to and from the islands are licensed by the Mexican national park service so that access is controlled. In contrast to the mainland, which is strewn with trash, the Coronado Islands are pristine, with beautiful white sand beaches and tide pools teaming with life. The islands are home to much wildlife, including seagulls, petrels, pelicans, rattlesnakes, lizards, rabbits, mice, sea lions and elephant seals. Christine saw a sea lion colony as well as dolphins and fin whales on the boat trip to the islands, which made her trip well worthwhile.
By Tuesday, the 22nd, the conference was underway, and Christine and Lynn set up their poster for their poster session, entitled “Ecotourism, Tourists, and Green Sea Turtles at Kahalu’u Bay, Kona, Hawai’i.” They also went to Marc Rice’s oral presentation entitled “Hawaiian Green Turtles Dive to Record Depths During Oceanic Migrations.” Marc Rice, along with George Balasz, are the green sea turtle researchers who do the turtle tagging in Kona on a periodic basis. See the SeaPics blog entry for Nov. 28, 2007, “Green Sea Turtle Tagging on the Kona Coast” for pictures and an account of their activities.
At 6:00 on Tuesday evening, Lynn and Christine attended the Symposium’s social, which was held next to the mission in the Loreto town square. The mission, called Mision de Nuestra Senora de Loreto Concho, was founded by Jesuits in 1697, making it the oldest mission in the Californias. From that date until 1777, Loreto was the capital of Las Californias. Christine and Lynn mingled and met some photographers, including Michael Carey, who knew SeaPics.com photographer Jim Watt and was with him on his last trip to Bonaire. They all chatted and networked and took advantage of the flowing 4 Copas organic tequila that was made especially for the Symposium.
On Wednesday, the 23rd, Christine and Lynn attended oral presentations at the auditorium. It was unusually cold and damp inside, due to the building being concrete and open air, so Lynn found it difficult to stay there. It had started raining, and the roof was leaking in places. They had a tent over the AV equipment in the auditorium to keep it from getting damaged. Some of the presentations attended by Christine or Lynn on this day were:
In the afternoon on Wednesday, Lynn and Christine were scheduled to stand by their poster so people could ask questions and chat about issues of interest to them. There were many visitors to Lynn’s & Christines’s poster session and a surprising number of people had been to Kona’s Kahalu’u Bay. Quite a few visitors were familiar with SeaPics.com and had been to the SeaPics.com site, including some who had purchased sea turtle images for their poster sessions.
Thursday morning, Christine and Lynn attended workshops at the university. They had the opportunity to meet people from the Ocean Conservancy, and they related their bad experience with the gray whale watch. They also met some people with Journey Mexico, the tr avel company that had put together many of the arrangements for the Symposium, and told them of their concerns with the whale watch tour.
Thursday was Silent Auction day, where donated items were auctioned off to raise funds for the International Sea Turtle Society. SeaPics.com had donated some framed and unframed fine art prints by marine life photographers Jim Watt and Doug Perrine. One of the framed prints of a green sea turtle by Jim Watt, valued at $300, went for U.S. $580 at the auction.
Thursday afternoon was supposed to b e another day for standing by the posters, but it was raining hard and all the posters were outdoors with no protection from the elements. Some poor students who had entered their posters in a competition felt compelled to stand out there in the rain with their posters covered in plastic until the judges managed to make their rounds and tell them to seek shelter. Christine and Lynn, not part of any competition, had long since abandoned their poster to the rain. Fortunately, it was laminated, so the rain did it no harm. Of course, there were no people to look at the poster due to the rainy and muddy conditions.
On Friday, the cold rain continued non-stop. It w as too cold and rainy to stand by the poster, and the roads were too soggy with mud for exploring the town. A huge, muddy sinkhole formed right in front of the hotel.
By Saturday morning, Lynn & Christine were well ready to bid adios to Loreto and got to the airport by 6:30 a.m. for an 8:15 departure. Unfortunately, the Aeromexico plane crew hadn’t set their alarm and failed to arrive at all. The ladies jumped on an 11:30 plane headed for Hermosillo, but missed the connecting flight to L.A. Their choices now were to fly to Mexico City or stay in Hermosillo till the next day, neither of which seemed attractive to them. There was one flight to Tijuana, and after telling a sad and desperate story to the airport staff, they were ushered out onto the tarmac for the flight. From Tijuana, thanks to Christine’s daughter, a San Diego resident, they managed to get back to L.A. in time for their flight to Hawaii.
Overall, Christine and Lynn had a thought-provoking week, and enjoyed their experience, despite the horrendous weather. A symposium like this really illustrates how critical the situation is for the world’s sea turtles, but it also shows how there are thousands of concerned citizens around the world willing to put time, money and effort into preserving sea turtles and their habitat. Christine and Lynn returned from the symposium inspired to continue their efforts at ReefTeach and do their part for Hawaii’s endangered sea turtles.
Christine and Lynn departed Kona at midnight on the night of Jan. 18 on a flight for L.A. While at the Kona airport, they happened to run into Jason Williams, the founder of the Hawksbill Recovery Program. As it turned out, he wasn’t on his way to the Sea Turtle Symposium, but was at the airport on other business. They all took the opportunity to chat about their sea turtle conservation efforts, and Lynn volunteered to help guard hawksbill sea turtle nests from people and predators for the Hawksbill Recovery Program.
Christine and Lynn arrived at LAX at 6:30 the morning of the 19th, converted their dollars to Mexican pesos, and headed off on a connecting flight to Loreto. Loreto is a city of around 11,000 people on the Sea of Cortez side of the Baja Penninsula, about 100 miles north of La Paz. It’s a typical Mexican town; dusty, pot-holed roads, broken sidewalks, scruffy-looking dogs looking for scraps, trash everywhere. Anyone who’s been to Mexico has seen a town like this. On the other hand, the townspeople were incredibly friendly and very welcoming.
The main reason the Sea Turtle Symposium was held in Loreto was so the conference could coincide with the 10th anniversary celebration of the Loreto founding of Grupo Tortuguero, a primarily Spanish language association of conservation-minded organizations that promote protection of sea turtles by educating local communities on turtle-safe fishing practices and beach preservation. The International Sea Turtle Society hoped, too, that locating a major international conference in Loreto would show the local community that environmental protection could bring an economic boost to the region and encourage eco-tourism in the surrounding communities.
The Symposium also coincided with a special 4-day cultural event held by the Seri Indians from the Mexican state of Sonora, which is on the east side of the Sea of Cortez, across the sea from Loreto. Representatives from the Seri tribe came to Loreto to perform traditional dances and ceremonies (the Comcaak Ceremony) that revolved around sea turtles, which form an important part of their culture. In their homeland, they would perform these ceremonies on the beaches, where they would dance and escort baby sea turtles to the sea and wish them a safe journey and return. In Loreto, they performed their colorful dances and ceremonies in the town square and used models of sea turtles as a substitute for the real thing. The Seri Indians actually have special permission from the Mexican government to hunt sea turtles for personal consumption, as they have for centuries. Presumably, the International Sea Turtle Society sees the Seri Indians as representatives of responsible harvesters of a sustainable sea turtle resource.Lynn and Chris spent Saturday, the 19th getting to know the town of Loreto and orienting themselves to the conference site. They volunteered to help with t-shirt sales and conference registration. On that day, too, they met Wallace J. Nichols, the president of the International Sea Turtle Society and principal organizer of the Symposium. He made a particularly memorable impression, as he arrived at the Symposium on a tandem bicycle with his daughter.
The Sea Turtle Symposium, as stated before, is an annual event where interested sea turtle biologists, conservationists and laypeople can share information about sea turtles and their protection. It is attended by people from all over the world, including local people who are concerned with promoting turtle-friendly practices in their community. This year’s event, which covered the week of Jan. 19 to the 26th, featured poster sessions, vendor exhibits, socials, fund-raisers, workshops and oral presentations. While it is impossible to describe all that took place at the Symposium, below is a short summary of some of the major workshops and lectures:- Hawksbill Genetics Working Group - a discussion of current knowledge about Hawksbill population genetics (Organizers: Peter Dutton, Robin LeRoux, and F. Alberto Abreu-Grobois)
- Sea Turtles as Sentinels of Marine Ecological Health – linking the health of sea turtles in the Californias to specific ecosystems to show how sea turtles are indicators of the quality of marine environments (Instructors: Alonso Aquirre, Hector Zepeda, Natalia Rossi, Alan Zavala)
- Tackling Fisheries Bycatch – exploring innovative ways to mitigate the effects of gill nets on marine turtles (Organizer: Rebecca Lewison)
- An Introduction to Bayesian Statistics – an introduction to Bayesian statistics and how it differs from traditional statistics, including discussion of which type provides a better model for sea turtle research (Organzer: Tomo Eguchi)
- The Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Workshop – a workshop highlighting Latin American terrestrial and freshwater turtle issues, which tend to receive less coverage than the plight of sea turtles (Organizer: Chuck Schaffer)
- On Sunday, the 20th, Christine and Lynn had a free day, so they elected to go on a gray whale watching excursion. Just as humpback whales come to breed in Hawaiian waters every winter, so do gray whales head for the Baja California peninsula to give birth. Lynn, Christine and about 8 other conference attendees piled into a 10-person van and drove across the peninsula to the Pacific Ocean.
- The drive was across desert, with views of eroded mountains, scrub vegetation, cactus, and a fair amount of garbage strewn along the road. At one point, they followed a small Toyota pick-up truck with a horse balancing precariously in the back.
- They arrived at the Pacific after about a 2-hour drive and got in a skiff for whale watching. While on the boat, they saw egrets, great frigate birds, brown pelicans, plus scenic sand dunes along the coast. This part of the trip turned out to be the highlight of the excursion.
After the whale watch, Christine and Lynn were taken to a restaurant with a nominally gray whale theme. It was decorated with whale vertebrae inside and out, and featured a huge, poorly-preserved stuffed grouper. Outside, there were some turkey vultures sunning themselves, which Lynn took pictures of. The Mexican national bird, the crested caracara, also made an appearance. Interestingly, the crested caracara is not the raptor that appears on the Mexican national flag and official coat of arms. These show a golden eagle with a snake in its mouth and talons, after an Aztec legend that describes the founding of Tenochtitlan, which later became known as Mexico City.The Monday after the whale watch, Christine was still game for another excursion, so she headed off solo for the Coronado Islands, a Mexican wildlife refuge not far from Loreto. The islands are uninhabited except for a few lighthouse keepers, and boats to and from the islands are licensed by the Mexican national park service so that access is controlled. In contrast to the mainland, which is strewn with trash, the Coronado Islands are pristine, with beautiful white sand beaches and tide pools teaming with life. The islands are home to much wildlife, including seagulls, petrels, pelicans, rattlesnakes, lizards, rabbits, mice, sea lions and elephant seals. Christine saw a sea lion colony as well as dolphins and fin whales on the boat trip to the islands, which made her trip well worthwhile.
By Tuesday, the 22nd, the conference was underway, and Christine and Lynn set up their poster for their poster session, entitled “Ecotourism, Tourists, and Green Sea Turtles at Kahalu’u Bay, Kona, Hawai’i.” They also went to Marc Rice’s oral presentation entitled “Hawaiian Green Turtles Dive to Record Depths During Oceanic Migrations.” Marc Rice, along with George Balasz, are the green sea turtle researchers who do the turtle tagging in Kona on a periodic basis. See the SeaPics blog entry for Nov. 28, 2007, “Green Sea Turtle Tagging on the Kona Coast” for pictures and an account of their activities.At 6:00 on Tuesday evening, Lynn and Christine attended the Symposium’s social, which was held next to the mission in the Loreto town square. The mission, called Mision de Nuestra Senora de Loreto Concho, was founded by Jesuits in 1697, making it the oldest mission in the Californias. From that date until 1777, Loreto was the capital of Las Californias. Christine and Lynn mingled and met some photographers, including Michael Carey, who knew SeaPics.com photographer Jim Watt and was with him on his last trip to Bonaire. They all chatted and networked and took advantage of the flowing 4 Copas organic tequila that was made especially for the Symposium.
On Wednesday, the 23rd, Christine and Lynn attended oral presentations at the auditorium. It was unusually cold and damp inside, due to the building being concrete and open air, so Lynn found it difficult to stay there. It had started raining, and the roof was leaking in places. They had a tent over the AV equipment in the auditorium to keep it from getting damaged. Some of the presentations attended by Christine or Lynn on this day were:
- The Sea Turtle Egg Donation System of Gautemala: Conservation on Non-protected Beaches (presented by Scott Handy, Sarah Lucas, and Colum Muccio)
- Studying the Reasons Behind the Decline of the Loggerhead Nesting Population of Rethymino, Greece: Lessons Learned for the Future (presented by Aliki Panagopoulou, Olga Karadaki and Dimitris Margaritoulis)
- Beach Feminisation: An Example from Australia of a Future Global Warming Effect on Flatback (Natator depressus) Sea Turtles (presented by April Stevens and M. Guinea)
In the afternoon on Wednesday, Lynn and Christine were scheduled to stand by their poster
Thursday morning, Christine and Lynn attended workshops at the university. They had the opportunity to meet people from the Ocean Conservancy, and they related their bad experience with the gray whale watch. They also met some people with Journey Mexico, the tr
Thursday afternoon was supposed to b
On Friday, the cold rain continued non-stop. It w
By Saturday morning, Lynn & Christine were well ready to bid adios to Loreto and got to the airport by 6:30 a.m. for an 8:15 departure. Unfortunately, the Aeromexico plane crew hadn’t set their alarm and failed to arrive at all. The ladies jumped on an 11:30 plane headed for Hermosillo, but missed the connecting flight to L.A. Their choices now were to fly to Mexico City or stay in Hermosillo till the next day, neither of which seemed attractive to them. There was one flight to Tijuana, and after telling a sad and desperate story to the airport staff, they were ushered out onto the tarmac for the flight. From Tijuana, thanks to Christine’s daughter, a San Diego resident, they managed to get back to L.A. in time for their flight to Hawaii.
Overall, Christine and Lynn had a thought-provoking week, and enjoyed their experience, despite the horrendous weather. A symposium like this really illustrates how critical the situation is for the world’s sea turtles, but it also shows how there are thousands of concerned citizens around the world willing to put time, money and effort into preserving sea turtles and their habitat. Christine and Lynn returned from the symposium inspired to continue their efforts at ReefTeach and do their part for Hawaii’s endangered sea turtles.
Labels: conservation, hawksbill sea turtle, research, sea turtle
posted by SeaPics.com at
2:47 PM
