A Focus On Nature, Advent Calendar, Now for Nature

6th December 2016

AFON

Archie Carr to NowforNature – Katrina Sutherland

Welcome to our 2016 Advent Calendar series (#AFONAdvent)! This year, our theme is “The Gift of Inspiration”. For each day, one of our members has written a blog post about someone who has inspired them, and how that inspiration has lead to them being where they are today. Each member is a shining example of a young person who is acting Now for Nature. We hope that you enjoy the series and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

For anyone with an interest in sea turtles, the name Archie Carr will be familiar. A well-respected sea turtle biologist, conservationist, teacher and writer, his book The Windward Road inspired the creation of the Sea Turtle Conservancy in 1959. He was the chairman of the IUCN’s Marine Turtle Specialist Group for 20 years, and his fight against sea turtle farms was supported by both U.S. regulations and CITES convention.

Archie Carr created the Tortuguero National Park, which was involved The U.S. Navy’s “Operation Green Turtle” (also founded by Carr). This program relocated over 130,000 eggs from Tortuguero, Costa Rica to 17 countries in the Greater Caribbean. This large effort helped increase awareness of the plight of sea turtles in the Caribbean. Over the years, more than 35,000 adult female green sea turtles have been tagged at Tortuguero. As well as providing safe nesting sites for four out of the seven species of sea turtle, the National Park also provides a safe refuge for many other species including the Baird’s tapir and the fishing bulldog bat.

Fast forward a few decades and hop across the pond to the Greek island of Kefalonia in the summer of 2015 and I find myself on a beach at night, waiting for a loggerhead sea turtle nest to hatch. A small patch of sand moves slightly, and a tiny, perfectly-formed nose pokes through the gap. This is quickly followed by a head and a pair of flippers. Before too long, a hatchling sea turtle takes its first steps, and starts its journey to the sea. If it’s a female, it may be decades before the hatchling returns to this beach. A male hatchling will never set foot (or rather flipper?) on land again.

Katrina Sutherland on a sea turtle project

It’s from this moment onward that I fully understood Archie Carr’s passion for sea turtles. His work on them has increased our understanding of these beautiful animals, whilst bringing them into the public eye. The world of sea turtles would be very different if it were not for the work of Carr.

I aim to follow in Carr’s inspiring footsteps, and make a difference in the world of sea turtles.

In evolution’s eye, all humans are lobe-finned fish. Archie Carr was an excellent one.

Katrina Sutherland is a zoology student with a particular passion for sea turtles and conservation. She enjoys volunteering in her spare time, and hopes to work in marine conservation in the future.