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CCC’s Sea Turtle Tracking Program Celebrates Its 10th Year
Date: June 14, 2006
Contact: Dan Evans
Phone: (325) 373-6441
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - As the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC) celebrates the 10th year of its successful Sea Turtle Migration-Tracking Education Program, which allows children and other Internet users around the world to watch the mysterious migrations of sea turtles being tracked by satellite, over 10 new sea turtles will be added to the migration-tracking section of CCC's website. CCC began the international trend of tracking sea turtles on the internet for educational purposes. In the years since launching its program in 1996, CCC has been honored to see so many groups and institutions using the model it created to reach larger and larger audiences.
Since its launch, CCC's education program has continually expanded, now boasting online visitors from 161 countries around the world. The site receives an average of over 61,000 hits every day, and last year it surpassed 16 million hits received.
As part of the program, CCC developed a free Educator’s Guide that can be downloaded from the website. Currently, there are over 15,000 teachers, representing over 450,000 students, who have registered to receive the Educator’s Guide. Thousands of these guides have been given out at events or distributed by other organizations and agencies as a valuable educational resource. It has been translated into four different languages. The Sea Turtle Migration-Tracking Education Program has involved over 150 sea turtles, representing nearly 30 research projects.
“This education program combines the mystery of sea turtle migration with state-of-the-art technology to raise awareness and support for sea turtle conservation,” said David Godfrey, CCC's Executive Director. “It has become CCC's most effective tool for reaching people with information about sea turtles, and its effectiveness has given rise to dozens of similar online programs around the world.”
To utilize this free program or to adopt a satellite-tagged turtle, call the CCC at 1-800-678-7853 or go directly to our website at www.cccturtle.org. Teachers wanting to incorporate the program in their school curriculum can register online to download the free Educator’s Guide with background information, worksheets and ideas for fun, educational classroom activities.
Background information on the Caribbean Conservation Corporation: The Caribbean Conservation Corporation, based in Gainesville, Florida, (CCC) is the oldest sea turtle research and conservation group in the world. Founded by legendary sea turtle expert Dr. Archie Carr and others in 1959, CCC has been conducting research on the sea turtles of Tortuguero for over 40 years. Tortuguero's globally important nesting beach has become an important tourist attraction in Costa Rica, and each year thousands of tourists come to Tortuguero to see nesting sea turtles. Caribbean Conservation Corporation's John H. Phipps Biological Field Station at Tortuguero serves as a base of operation for CCC's ongoing sea turtle studies, volunteer programs and community outreach. In Florida, CCC led the successful campaign to establish the Florida Sea Turtle Specialty License Plate, which now provides a steady source of funding for the state's Marine Turtle Protection Program.
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