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Marine Turtle Newsletter 61:30-31, © 1993
Sally R. Murphy
Past-President of the Sea Turtle Symposium
South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department
Post Office Box 12559, Charleston, South Carolina 29422-2559 USA
The 13th Annual Sea Turtle Symposium was hosted by the Nongame and Heritage Trust Section of the South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department and the Nongame and Endangered Species Section of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Thanks are expressed to Mike Harris and his staff at Georgia DNR and to the dozens of people that volunteered their time and energy to make this year's symposium a success. There are too many to mention here, but they all know who they are.
The 1993 symposium at Villas-By-The-Sea (Jekyll Island, Georgia, USA) was the largest ever with 565 participants representing 29 nations and territories. These included: Australia, Barbados, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, England, Germany, Greece, Japan, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Oman, Palau (Micronesia), Panama, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Surinam, Tahiti, Trinidad and Tobago, U.S. Virgin Islands, USA, and Venezuela.
There were 86 technical papers given and 50 poster presentations. The Best Student Paper Award was given to Mary Rybitski (Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary) with Honorable Mention to Selina Heppel (North Carolina State University) and Tigerin Peare (Ohio State University). Best Student Poster was by Sarah Fangman (North Carolina Maritime Museum).
More than $4000 was raised at the Auction to support travel grants for next year's foreign participants. A special tribute to Jack Woody (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Associate Regional Director (Region 2) and National Sea Turtle Coordinator) was made at the Banquet in honor of his long term and dedicated work on behalf of sea turtle conservation as he retires from the USFWS.
Barbara Schroeder (Florida Department of Natural Resources) now assumes the duties of President for the 14th Annual Sea Turtle Symposium. Thelma Richardson and Ed Drane were re-elected as Secretary and Treasurer, respectively, and Jack Musick is President-elect. Llewellyn Ehrhart (University of Central Florida), Kenneth Dodd (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), and Robert Shoop (University of Rhode Island) were newly elected to the Board of Directors.
There were several meetings held in conjunction with the symposium. These included: Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WIDECAST), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging research, National Marine Fisheries Service non-trawl related incidental catch mortality, the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network (STSSN), and the IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group. A heartfelt thank you to all who participated in the symposium and, with your presence, assured its success. See you all next year!