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Costa Rica was selected as the venue for the 24th STS for a number of reasons. First, to recognize the country’s significance as the birthplace of modern sea turtle biology and conservation. Moreover, to showcase the work being done in and by Costa Rica to address what is perhaps the most burning issue in sea turtle conservation today, the vertiginous decline of the American Pacific leatherback turtle (the mascot of the 24th STS). Lastly, the organizers wanted to give STS participants a chance to experience first-hand that which provides so many of us with our ultimate source of inspiration, Nature. We were heartened to see so many people take advantage of the packaged tours provided by our travel partners, Manaca and Neotropical Expeditions, and also pleased to see how many people participated in the pre- and post-Symposium events at Ostional and Playa Grande, where the olive ridleys and leatherbacks came ashore right on cue to greet us.

At the close of the Inaugural Ceremonies, a videotaped welcome message from Costa Rican President, Abel Pacheco set the tone for the event - “Sea turtles have lived in harmony with Nature for more than 100 million years,” said Don Abel in his overview of Costa Rica’s role in sea turtle conservation. “The human species has much to learn from sea turtles about how to adjust our own behavior to assure that the planet survives… Our own survival depends on it.” Thus was launched a week-long, nonstop odyssey of sea turtle related scientific presentations (approximately 350 oral and poster presentations all told), regional and technical submeetings, social and cultural activities, media events, training workshops, fun, food, and field trips for the more than 1000 sea turtle biologists, conservationists and enthusiasts that came from the far-flung corners of the planet to make this the largest gathering in history dedicated to the charismatic marine chelonians that inspire us all.

The theme for the 24th STS was Sea Turtle Lifescapes, (described in MTN 101:42-44). With this in mind, the organizers strove to assure the participation of a broad array of human partners (inescapable components of sea turtle lifescapes), ranging from corporations like Intel, Gap and Tarrazú Coffee, to government agencies and officials, artists and musicians, fishermen, and of course the very residents of local communities that share their habitats with sea turtles. The technical sessions were designed to lead us into the future, and all speakers were invited to comment on what actions would be needed next to assure the conservation of sea turtles. An important recurring theme at the 24th STS, beginning with the opening remarks and ending with the message of the keynote speaker, Steven Hock, was that of synergy and organization – the need for all of us that are part of this sea turtle “movement” to focus on the big picture, to do all we can to assure that our collective conservation impact as individuals and institutions is greater than the sum of our parts.

Demonstrative of this, a new effort was unveiled, called the State of the World’s Turtles Initiative (SWoT, for short), that brings together the ISTS and its hundreds of members who gather annually, with Duke’s OBIS/Seamap Program, the IUCN’s Marine Turtle Specialist Group (MTSG) and Conservation International, to gather, analyze and put global-scale, geo-referenced sea turtle data to work for our movement as a powerful conservation instrument. Through another strategic partnership, with the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center, the ISTS and others, a day-long workshop was convened with over 90 participants on the theme of “Reducing Turtle Bycatch: A Workshop on How to Organize and Educate fisherman” – a bold and necessary new alliance that tackles one of the principle threats to sea turtles worldwide.

The sections that follow highlight some of the other noteworthy results and accomplishments of the 24th STS.

Outreach and Communications: Much as conservation communicators have used pandas, tigers and primates to draw attention to terrestrial conservation issues, sea turtles are the charismatic megafauna of the sea that best represent the full range of marine ecosystems we strive to conserve, from beaches, to reefs, to seagrass beds, deep sea mounts and the open sea. From the earliest days of planning for the 24th STS, a strategy was formulated to make the Symposium a focal event to leverage global media attention to “get the word out” about sea turtle and global marine conservation issues. The strategy drew upon the skills of a team of experts from CI’s Communications Division, representatives of the “Defying Ocean’s End” effort, and creative professionals from New York-based Green Team Advertising. Fact sheets and press kits were produced and distributed widely; op-ed pieces were drafted and circulated with the help of President Pacheco and others; a B-roll of sea turtle footage was compiled for distribution to televised media; a timetable of news releases was developed to assure momentum throughout the weeklong Symposium; and press conferences were held. A grant from the Moore Family Foundation (MFF) helped the ISTS to bring journalists and media professionals from several countries, and the results were better than we could have imagined. Several major international wire services covered the event, including Reuters, The Associated Press, France’s Agence France Press, Spain’s ACAN/EFE and Japan’s largest wire service, Kyodo News. Reuters alone services more than 450,000 media outlets and corporate clients, which in turn send the news along to millions of readers; Kyodo News feeds more than 70 newspapers in Japan with a combined circulation in excess of 50 million; and EFE reaches 113 million readers in Latin America and Spain. Major outlets also Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 104, 2004 - Page 16 covered the event including: National Geographic Online, BBC Online and The Los Angeles Times. Journalists from Mexico and Brazil – two key sites for marine turtle awareness and conservation – were on hand for the entire week. Marcelo Leite from Brazil’s Folha de S. Paulo (circulation 400,000-700,000) wrote four articles about the event. Antimio Cruz from Mexico’s leading newspaper, Grupo Reforma, wrote more than six stories about the event, including a frontpage article in Mexico City’s leading paper, the Reforma (approx. circulation 126,000) and Guadalajara’s Mural (approx. circulation 25,000).

Thanks to the support of MINAE’s press office, the national media in Costa Rica was also fully engaged in publicizing the 24th STS and its conservation message. The nation’s leading newspapers, including La Nación, El Heraldo, Diaro Extra and the Tico Times covered the symposium. Television and radio also generated extensive coverage - the country’s only nationwide television station, Canal 13, broadcast a half-hour interview with ISTS President Roderic Mast and the directors of Ostional (Carlos Mario Orrego) and Baulas de Guanacaste (Rotney Piedra) National Parks. The largest commercial station, Telenoticias, covered the opening of the event. Finally, 80 radio stations that are part of the Cadena Nacional network simultaneously broadcast a 15-minute feature piece about the symposium on the day after its termination.

Literally hundreds of millions of readers, viewers and listeners across the globe were reached with our message, and the coverage continues. Stories were largely focused on the decline of the leatherback turtle in the Pacific and reasons for the decline, demonstrating to readers how they as individuals will be affected, and how they can help. To date, dozens of media hits have been registered in Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, the United States and Venezuela, to name a few, demonstrating the importance of the Annual Sea Turtle Symposium as a nexus for generating the media attention that will be a critical ingredient in assuring the success of sea turtle conservation efforts into the future.

Technical Sessions: Due to the upsurge in threats to sea turtles and their habitats, and the increasing importance of our STS in shaping conservation solutions and responses to these threats, a few modifications were made this year in the technical program in an attempt to better leverage new advancements and collaborations using the vast human resources of the ISTS and the quarter-century tradition of this gathering. Perhaps the single most important change this year was the increased importance and responsibilities of Program Session Chairs. The schedule of events and session topics were designed in advance around the Symposium theme using a scheme suggested by Nat Frazer in an article appearing in the Centennial Issue of the Marine Turtle Newsletter, entitled Concerning Those Things Which We Ought To Have Done: Reflections on the Future of Sea Turtle Research. Seven sessions of oral presentations were designed, with three concurrent poster sessions. Each session theme had one to three Chair(s) responsible for constructing a successful and productive day long or half-day long series of presentations that addressed the goals of the session and reflected the Symposium theme. It is important to recognize these Session Chairs, who formed this year’s Program Committee, along with Michael Coyne, Brian Hutchinson and Kartik Shanker, the latter three providing crucial organizational input and data management throughout.

Sea Turtles in Costa Rica – Mini Symposium
(Roldán Valverde and Mario Boza)

Sea Turtles and Socio-Economics
(Lisa Campbell and Peter Pritchard)

Sea Turtle Assessment and Monitoring
(Sally Murphy, Dave Owens and Frank Paladino)

Global and Regional Sea Turtle Conservation and Research
(Karen Eckert and Doug Hykle)

Sea Turtle Modeling and Prediction
(Selina Heppell and Milani Chaloupka)

Technology and Sea Turtles
(J. Nichols and Didiher Chacón)

Novel Insights in Sea Turtle Research and Conservation
(Nat Frazer)

Of 405 abstracts received, 112 were accepted as orals, 278 were accepted as posters (resulting in 255 posters presented), and 15 abstracts were rejected. It is important to note that rejections have become a necessary part of Symposium protocols. At one point in its history the ISTS justly prided itself on accepting Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 104, 2004 - Page 17 all of the submitted abstracts. However, as a natural result of our growth, and the fact that the ISTS Board of Directors has chosen to stick to a format of “no concurrent sessions”, some rejections, albeit very few, are necessary.

Awards and Recognition: The ISTS considers it of utmost importance to assist those scientists from around the world whose resources might not be sufficient to be able to attend the STS. As a result, for several years, grants have been made for worthy participants to travel to the Symposium. A Travel Committee of six, Chaired by Jeffrey Seminoff, reviewed dozens of applications this year and was able to provide funding totaling $90,000 in the forms of both financial assistance and hotel accommodations, to fully 149 participants from 52 countries. Those receiving travel funding contributed to over 100 oral and poster presentations and many provided volunteer support for the symposium and associated workshops and side meetings. We are grateful to the generosity of the Homeland Foundation, Conservation International, and the NOAA/NMFS Southeast Fisheries Science Center. In addition to these grants, the annual auction is a major source of revenue in support of student travel grants – this year was no exception, as the auction, which lasted fully 4.5 hours, fetched an impressive $14,200. We want to thank all of you who donated items and all of you who purchased items, not to mention Arlo Hemphill and the Nova girls (our bartenders), whose indefatigable service in support of the cause assured that people like Jim Spotila were in proper form for purchasing things like the classic sea turtle toilet-seat cover, which sold for a andsome $190. An honorable mention for this year’s auction goes out to belly-dancing Belinda Dick and her troupe, and to Turtle King and Queen, Kike and Ana, for honoring us with their royal presence. A portion of this year’s travel support was also made available through the generosity of Disney’s Wild Animal Kingdom to launch a new program – The Disney International Fellowship Award – to recognize leadership, passion, and outstanding contributions in the field of sea turtle biology and conservation. This year’s winners were Angela Formia (UK); Jesús Tomás (Spain), Joanna Alfaro Shigueto (Peru), Manjula Tiwari (USA), Richard Adjei (Ghana), Robert Van Dam (Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles), Huang Tsung-shun (Taiwan), Abigail Moore (Indonesia), Stephen Poon (Trinidad) and Omar Chassin (Mexico).

As in years past, the ISTS teamed with The Chelonian Research Foundation to award prizes for the best student papers. Lisa Campbell and Jeanette Wyneken Co-Chaired the effort, and were assisted by 20 judges who carefully reviewed the work of all the applicants. This year, the Archie Carr Student Paper Competition received a total of 105 applications, split equally between conservation and biology. Fully $3500 in prize money was awarded to 10 winners, 4 in the conservation category and 6 in the biology category. In addition to their cash prizes ($500 first place, $250 runner up), winners received a subscription to Chelonian Conservation Biology. The winners in the conservation and biology category were Kiki Jenkins (1st - oral); Zoë Meletis (runner up – oral); John Wang (1st – poster) and Hoyt Peckham (runner up – poster). For the Biology Category, the winners were Manjula Tiwari (1st - oral); Bill Irwin and Toshinori Okuyama (runners up, oral); Judy Gocke (1st – poster) and Lesley Stokes and Cameron Ralph (runners up, poster).

Lastly, the 24th STS was chosen as the venue for awarding Conservation International’s 2004 Neotropical Conservation Leadership Awards. CI President, Russell Mittermeier and Peter Pritchard took the stage to explain the history of the Neotropical Conservation Award, and to bestow plaques and $1000 cash awards to two husband and wife teams for their outstanding leadership in sea turtle conservation in Costa Rica: Rotney Piedra and Elizabeth Vélez, for their efforts to conserve leatherbacks in the Baulas de Guanacaste National Park and vicinity; and Randall Arauz and Isabel Naranjo, for their work that has drawn global attention to the problems and solutions of fisheries impacts on turtles and sharks in Pacific Costa Rica.

Training and Special Events: A number of training events took place at the Symposium, including a lunchtime session on Fundraising Techniques, hosted by MTSG Co-Chairs, Nicolas Pilcher and Roderic Mast; the aforementioned workshop entitled “Reducing Turtle Bycatch: A Workshop on How to Organize and Educate Fisherman”; and tutorials were provided all week long at a booth hosted by SWoT Coordinators, Ben Best and Colette Wabnitz in the use of the technical tools for interfacing with the SWoT database.

Regional meetings were tacked-on to the beginning and end of the week for Asia, Africa, Latin America (Retomala – held in Ostional February 18-21), Mediterranean and the Caribbean (Widecast). A lunchtime session on Freshwater Turtle and Tortoise Biology and Conservation, hosted by Chuck Schaffer; and a cumbre of partners in the implementation of conservation measures in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape (ETPS) hosted by CI. Finally, a special event Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 104, 2004 - Page 18 was held at Playa Grande on February 28 to launch the local Festival de la Tortuga, complete with speeches by Minister Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, local MINAE officials and community leaders, theatre and songs performed by children from surrounding communities, food and drink prepared by the local women’s cooperative, and a night time beach walk with park personnel and local guides to see the last nesting leatherbacks for the 2003-2004 season.

Acknowledgements: The organizers (ISTS, CI and MINAE) have many to thank. First, the core saviors: Clara Padilla, Brian Hutchinson, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Mario Boza, Michael Coyne, Ed Drane (ISTS Treasurer), the Program Committee, the Travel Committee, the Press Corps (especially CI’s Jim Wyss and MINAE’s Patricia Alpizar), and the volunteers (Belinda, Gina, Etilma, Grethel, Angela, Morrison & Terrill, y todos los demas - we especially worship all of you). The Artists - installation artist, Cali Rivera, provided the “Prayer Flags” that adorned the Conference Center and dais; Maestro, Manuel Obregon touched our hearts with his inspirational improvisation at the Inaugural Event and his jazz quartet at the opening cocktail; and Alvaro López, the percussionist who called us to order each morning, was better than caffeine. The traditional dancers at the Banquet were provided by our friends at Coopetarrazu, and the rockin’ salsa band that kept us all up until 02:00 after the Awards Banquet was Marfil. We recognize the donors: Coopetarrazú; Disney Wild Animal Kingdom; East Bay Community Foundation; Bob, Randi, Lexie, John and Emma Fisher; GAP Foundation; Gary Goldring; Homeland Foundation; Hotel Herradura; Componentes Intel de Costa Rica, S. A.; Landmark Vineyards; The Leatherback Trust; Moore Family Foundation; NOAA/NMFS Southeast and Southwest Fisheries Science Centers; Offield Family Foundation; Oceanic Resources Foundation; Portland Brewing Company; Radiográfica Costarricense, S. A. (RACSA) and Anders Rhodin (Chelonian Research Foundation). Mauricio, who did the banners, the program and the Spanish posters – you rock. As do Ted Goodridge, Chris Heltne, Fernando Urrea and John Martin, CI’s graphics team, who created our logo and image. And we would be remiss if we did not express our gratitude to the turtles themselves, without whom none of this would have
happened.

Future Symposia: Each year the Symposium has a different President whose job it is to “make it allhappen,” thus an integral component for ensuring our success into the future is the Nominations Committee. The Nominations Committee for the 24th Annual Symposium consisted of Manjula Tiwari (Chair), Dave Owens, Brendan Godley, Mark Hamann, and Ana Barragán. The following slate of officers were nominated, approved by the Board of Directors of the ISTS, and accepted at the Plenary Session on February 27: President-Elect (2006) - Dimitris Margaritoulis (Greece); Secretary - Manjula Tiwari; Treasurer - Ed Drane; New Board member - Nancy FitzSimmons; Nominations Committee Chair - Mark Hamann; Nominations Committee members - Dave Owens, Brendan Godley, Neca Marcovaldi, and Matthew Godfrey. Congratulations to all. The Annual Symposium has come a long way in the past 24 years. Under countless dutiful leaders supported by innumerable dedicated volunteers, we have evolved from a 15 person gathering in the backwaters of the Southeast US to an International Society represented by over a thousand members from nearly 80 countries. We have much to be proud of, and must keep these successes in mind as we look to the future and continue to evolve in a positive direction. But alas, the time has come to pass the torch (or trowel as the case may be), into the unwitting hands of the 25th Symposium President, Thane Wibbels, with a blessing and a deep sigh of relief. While we are sad to see it end, we are equally pleased to report that Thane is already hard at work in planning yet another successful Symposium. See MTN 104:26.