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Archie Carr was a founding member of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC). This is an endeavour that grew out of a loosely organized group of people dedicated to saving the green sea turtle, called the Brotherhood of the Green Turtle. In The Sea Turtle--So Excellent A Fishe, Archie wrote:
The Caribbean Conservation Corporation is a non-profit group dedicated to preserving biological resources in the Caribbean. Its first undertaking was the green turtle program, in which information gathered at Tortuguero and by the years of Caribbean reconnaissance was to be used in an effort to bring back colonies of the green turtle to old-time levels of abundance.
The CCC was originally made possible by the generosity of John H. Phipps. Mr. Phipps passed away in 1981, but the CCC continues its efforts on behalf of the green turtle. The Tortuguero station was named the John H. Phipps Green Turtle Research Station in his honour.
Like many organizations, the CCC is just discovering the Web and its possibilities. At some point in the future, the CCC will undoubtedly design its own homepage, but until that time, David Godfrey of the CCC has asked us to include the following CCC information at Turtle Trax.
It's a moon-lit, breezy night on a deserted tropical beach on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica. Out of the darkness a giant green turtle slowly emerges from the sea to bury her eggs in the black volcanic sand, just as her species has done for millions of years. You are there to witness and record this rare moment as a volunteer in the longest running sea turtle research program in the world. If this sounds rewarding, reserve your space in this summer's Green Turtle Tagging and Monitoring Program.
The Florida-based, non-profit Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC) offers the opportunity to work with nesting sea turtles during its annual Green Turtle Volunteer Program, held each summer on the remote Caribbean beach at Tortuguero, Costa Rica--where more green turtles nest than anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere. Volunteers are needed to assist researchers in monitoring the beach at night and in tagging and recording various data about the turtles. By recording data about the turtles over a long period of time, scientists are able to piece together information about their life history, their physiology and the status of the population. The more we know about these endangered creatures, the better we can manage and protect them.
"Everyone ought to see a turtle nesting," wrote Dr. Archie Carr, the world-renowned biologist, author and founding director of CCC. "It is an impressive thing to see, the pilgrimage of a sea creature back to the land its ancestors left a hundred million years ago."
Volunteers will work under the direction of a field coordinator and accompany research assistants nightly to monitor the nesting beach. In addition to the field work on the beach, volunteers are offered several education sessions and field trips, including guided hikes and boat tours through the tropical rainforest. Because turtle research is conducted at night, the days left open for reading, sleeping, exploring the area, or merely enjoying the sights and sounds of this remote Caribbean coastal community.
No experience or expertise is needed because volunteers are taught all they need to know to participate in the turtle research. However, volunteers should be physically fit, as the research may require walking as much as five mile a night in warm, humid conditions. Volunteers are charged a fee which covers airfare from Miami to Costa Rica, all in-country travel, meals and living expenses at the Caribbean Conservation Corporation's newly-constructed John H. Phipps Tortuguero Biological Field Station, adjacent to the beautiful Tortuguero National Park. The fee also helps provide needed funding for international sea turtle research and conservation programs. Provided there is still room in one of the seven scheduled research teams, there is no deadline to become a volunteer and last minute joiners are welcome.
If volunteering for the turtles won't fit in your schedule this summer, then you can still help out by "adopting" a green turtle tagged at Tortuguero during the volunteer program. For a tax-deductible donation of $25 (US), you will receive an adoption certificate, green turtle photo, sea turtle fact sheet, personal profile of the adopted turtle and a one-year subscription to VELADOR, the quarterly environmental newsletter of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation. Sea turtle adoptions also make unique and thoughtful gifts for anyone interested in the environment.
For more information about becoming a Green Turtle Program volunteer or to "adopt" a Tortuguero turtle from Caribbean Conservation's Sea Turtle Survival League, call 1-800-678-7853.
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