Photo from MarineBio.org
All are invited to celebrate World Sea Turtle Day next Monday, June 17, at the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge. Free activities will include a beach walk and beach clean-up, sea turtle lessons and crafts, and a special showing of the movie “Turtle: The Incredible Journey.”
Since the year 2000, World Sea Turtle Day has been commemorated on the birthday of Dr. Archie Carr, who is widely known as “the father of sea turtle biology.”
Dr. Carr (1909 – 1987) focused his entire career on sea turtle research and conservation. According to The Sea Turtle Conservancy:
Archie Carr was a great biologist. His early descriptive studies of turtles set the standard of quality in the field of natural history. Later on, as he focused on sea turtles, he moved toward ecology and behavior, although his work always retained a taxonomic and evolutionary perspective. For decades the National Science Foundation (and the Sea Turtle Conservancy and the Office of Naval Research) supported his research at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, enabling him to mount one of the longest lasting and most intensive studies of an animal population that has ever been done. To date, more than 35,000 adult female green turtles have been tagged at the research station at Tortuguero.
Archie Carr was a conservation biologist long before the field was recognized. To read more about his notable achievements, click here!
