The 21st Sea Turtle Symposium is now a memory and a mixed-bag. Its theme was "Coming of Age" and indeed, it did. For me it was the Symposium where I came to view people differently. As with every other Symposium it was an opportunity to build new bridges, rekindle old friendships and hang out with "kin."
The annual Symposium is the meeting place of the world's sea turtle experts. It is a once-a-year opportunity to see so many champion biologists and conservationists all under one roof. Turtle Lords and Lordettes, PhD's, Movers-and-Shakers, the Great-Unwashed Turtle Huggers--all converge for a week of Turtle Talk.
A week of "lights."
At the end of each Symposium in the past, I witnessed lights having shone brighter than the year before. Not this time--for me there was disillusionment. For me there was a Coming of Age. I discovered that lights dim and tarnish. And a few wink out completely.
Still. There was much to celebrate and that is the focus of this report. About coming out better than when you arrived--about learning and growing.
I've struggled to find the one image that would say it all--convey what I experienced in Philadelphia and that odd odd Symposium.
And here it is--selected exclusively because I can't shake this image from my head. Dr. Nicholas Mrosovsky speaks while George Balazs (fighting off jetlag) listens intently. If it were a painting I'd call it "STARK CONTRAST."
STARK CONTRAST 52K JPEG |
And free of this image, I can now offer the rest of our photo album.
Click on the images on the left for a larger version.
Symposia are intense events, so MANY presentations, workshops, seminars, discussions that your brain gets full. By the end you're all turtled-out.
And that's when the MTSG meeting is. Speakers came and went providing reports on their ocean area. It was about this time I realized I hadn't a single image of George Balazs (NMFS Honolulu) so I moved to the front and angled myself into position.
And then I watched the room and the sea turtle people. When you get turned on to observing sea turtles you just don't ever really stop observing. You just kind of naturally do it. And because our paper this year was about turtle eyes, I zeroed in on the eyes of the sea turtle people.
I scanned the room fascinated.
Jack Frazier shone brightly. 61K JPEG |
Karen Eckert's eyes shone with dedication and purpose. 56K JPEG |
Colin Limpus--eyes fiery with intellect and vision. 64K JPEG |
Jack Musick and Marydele Donnelly--eyes on the future. 66K JPEG |
Laura Sarti--eyes that miss nothing. 38K JPEG |
Which leads to my favourite image, from Wednesday morning's meeting of the Marine Turtle Specialist Group (MTSG): the last pair of eyes. Eyes that have watched over Hawaii's sea turtles for almost thirty years now. And on this Philadelphia morning the brain behind those eyes was fighting off jetlag--a five hour time difference. The eyes should be closed and asleep. Instead, George was busy taking notes.
George Balazs--eyes ever vigilant. 55K JPEG |
For Peter's comments, see Turtle Happenings.