The former Minister of the Environment and Energy in his home country of Costa Rica, Rodriguez has been instrumental to regional conservation efforts for many years. He has helped pioneer the concept of payment for ecosystem services, a system that CI is now implementing with local communities in ecosystems around the globe.

The Rabinowitz-Kaplan prize was presented to Rodriguez by the Panthera Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to big cat conservation. Rodriguez’s Payments for Ecosystem Services in Costa Rica program has not only improved the lives of many rural people, but it has also resulted in the restoration and preservation of forests which provide crucial jaguar habitat.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit one of these partners, the Perry Institute for Marine Science, as a volunteer at their tropical research center on Lee Stocking Island, in the Bahamas’ Exuma Cays.

The island is as far away from the steel drum-lined ports of Nassau or Freeport as you can get. From CI’s headquarters in Arlington, VA, I took three flights (including a 19-seater plane with no bathroom), an airport taxi, and finally, an open boat across a channel to get from “town” to the island’s research facilities.

“The island is as far away from the steel drum-lined ports of Nassau or Freeport as you can get.”

Once I arrived, I quickly settled into the beautiful surroundings and relaxed atmosphere of this wild, largely uninhabited island. As a volunteer, I worked with staff to prepare for an upcoming environmental education summit in nearby George Town on Great Exuma. With the support of the Institute, more than 200 Bahamian students in 4th-6th grade would come together from all over the islands to spend three days learning about issues affecting their marine environment.

I helped create posters and presentations about marine life and threats including marine debris, pollutants and invasive species. I also spent time talking with research scientists about their work, visiting the “Lobster Lab” to see their projects and discussing issues affecting their research, ranging from the impact of local fishermen on study sites to the presence of invasive lionfish (family Scorpaenidae) and the impact on native fish populations and reef ecosystems.

I also had time to explore the island’s deserted, pristine beaches. From the main dock, a 30-minute walk through forested overgrowth brought me to beautiful Coconut Beach – a long stretch of half-moon-shaped beach and white sand without another soul in sight. From there, it was only a 10-minute hike to Perry’s Peak – at 123 feet, the highest peak on the Exuma Cays.

To find out more about volunteer opportunities in this amazing place, and to see a virtual fly-over of the island, visit the Institute’s website:
www.PerryInstitute.org

To learn more about how lionfish are threatening Bahamian reefs, including an animated map of the 1993-2009 lionfish invasion, please visit the NPR story,
“Spreading Lionfish Invasion Threatens Bahamas”

Jennifer Snyder is the Senior Science Development Manager at Conservation International

Then again, I suppose some people might see close proximity to a large, agile carnivore as less than desirable, but I trusted in the cheetah’s more than capable handlers to control him.

This 11-month old “cheetah ambassador” came as a visitor from the Columbus Zoo, along with an Anatolian shepherd dog that has been raised alongside the cheetah. The zoo staff has found that raising the dogs together with the cheetahs makes the cheetahs more relaxed and even-tempered for education and outreach programs.

As a room overflowing with CI staff watched the cheetah and dog explore their new surroundings (both on short leashes), Dr. Laurie Marker, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), talked to us about the plight of wild cheetahs and the diverse projects her organization is implementing to help them survive.

Although CCF differs from CI in its single-species focus, I was struck by the similarities as I listened to Dr. Marker describe the variety of projects CCF is conducting that strive to not only protect cheetahs, but improve the livelihoods of local people. The organization runs a working farm in Namibia with cattle, goats and sheep that serves as a cheetah-friendly model for nearby farmers. It is also expanding a project that converts thornbush into low-emissions fuel logs, creating an important fuel source and local employment while restoring the open terrain that is the cheetah’s natural habitat.

Organizations like CI and CCF share the vision of a world where people and nature can, and must, coexist. It is only through partnership that we can really hope to make this dream a reality.

Edit: Stay tuned in the coming months to learn more about livestock and wildlife conflict in southern Africa, and how Anatolian shepherd dogs a continent away from the one in our office are helping conservation.

How would you like your dinner choices to give your favorite turtle a leg up in the Great Turtle Race? Better yet, wouldn’t it be great if your evening menu helped turtles all over the globe (and seabirds, and fish, and marine mammals, and sharks)?

A quick search on the Internet, or even a text message – if that’s more your speed – can have great results. When it comes to seafood, knowledge is power: use what you know to choose seafood that conserves marine life and habitat.

Our seafood selections can affect hoards of swimming creatures. Learn about the impacts of different fishing and fish-farming methods by checking out www.blueocean.org/seafood or send a text to FishPhone™ to get instant information on a fish you might consider. Text FISH and the name of the species you would like to learn more about to 30644 (e.g., FISH MACKEREL, or FISH CLAMS); in under ten seconds Blue Ocean will send you our recommendation and the reason for it.

Fishing vessels catch the fish that we purchase for dinner, but in the process, they also kill or wound other species (and sometimes younger fish of the same species). That “bycatch” can include those sea turtles that you’re watching right now on www.GreatTurtleRace.org. The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that one quarter of the world’s commercial marine catch is bycatch (approximately 20 million metric tons).

With 6 of the world’s 7 species of marine turtles listed as endangered or vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), bycatch can have a major impact on turtle populations. The IUCN and the National Marine Fisheries Marine Fisheries Service list incidental catch in marine fisheries as one of the main threats to the 6 species of marine turtles with low numbers (the other being threats to nesting and hatching turtles). Globally, most sea turtle populations are imperiled. The ones doing best are in the Caribbean and southeast U.S., and the reason is a lot of organized conservation work and something called a TED. Read on.

Turtles end up as bycatch when they are caught in nets dragged along the sea floor, a common practice by fisheries targeting shrimp. Turtles are also snagged on the hooks and lines of longlines that stretch miles. Longlines are used to catch near-surface species including Swordfish, Mahimahi, and tuna, and also bottom fish of various kinds.

The good news is that effective methods can decrease bycatch. In the U.S., Turtle Excluder Devices (TED) are required on shrimp boats fishing in federal waters; they are a grate that block turtles from entering the deepest part of a trawl net and shunt the turtle out an escape hatch. An innovation in longline fisheries is the use of circle hooks, which hook fewer turtles and, if they do hook them, hook them in the mouth (where the hook can be removed safely) and seldom hook them in the gut. This allows fishermen to more easily release turtles unharmed.

By selecting fish caught in ways that result in less bycatch – or farmed varieties – you can keep turtles in the race. Thinking about ordering the shrimp cocktail? Make sure it’s from a U.S. fishery (which has to use TEDs), or U.S. farmed shrimp. See why those are your best choices at www.BlueOcean.org.

Check out the Blue Ocean website to get an idea of what other species result in less bycatch. Ask your server for where the fish came – and see if they know. There are lots of people who wield their forks in favor of marine life, so don’t feel like you’re single-handedly trying to save the sea. You can start just by being informed and motivated.

Katherine McLaughlin is the Seafood Program Director for Blue Ocean Institute, a global nonprofit marine conservation organization based in East Norwich, NY. Kate coordinates the translation of scientific information related to seafood for the dissemination to wide audiences through varied and creative media. Prior to joining Blue Ocean, Kate held a fellowship with the American Fisheries Society and Sea Grant, where she co-organized a symposium and edited the accompanying proceedings volume, Mitigating Impacts of Natural Hazards on Fishery Ecosystems.

Dr. Carl Safina brought ocean conservation into the environmental mainstream and is founding president of Blue Ocean Institute. His award-winning books include “Song for the Blue Ocean,” “Eye of the Albatross,” and “Voyage of the Turtle.” He’s been profiled by the New York Times, Nightline, and Bill Moyers, and his awards include a Pew Fellowship, Lannan Literary Award, John Burroughs Medal, and a MacArthur Prize, among others.

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