Joe Ruak, who heads the DFW sea turtle program, and turtle biologist Tammy Summers will attend the 29th Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation in Brisbane on Feb. 17 and 19.
The event, which will be held for the first time in Australia, is organized by the International Sea Turtle Society to promote the exchange of information that advances the global knowledge of sea turtle biology and conservation.
Ruak and Summers said they will meet with other conservationists from other areas of the Pacific on the first day of the symposium. They will then join the rest of the participants from other countries.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program, a non-profit regional organization based in Apia, Samoa, is paying for the travel costs of Ruak and Summers.
Summers said she and Ruak will discuss the CNMI’s sea turtle research and monitoring program which the DFW has been conducting since 2004 with the assistance of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In the program, the islands’ turtle population densities are monitored through nesting beach surveys, in-water capture for foraging ground surveys and cliff-line surveys.
DFW’s turtle program also responds to calls regarding injured or dead turtles.
Early last month, Ruak, Summers and other staff members conducted a necropsy on a dead juvenile green sea turtle found in the waters around Managaha.
They collected tissue, bone, gut contents, and skin samples and sent them to U.S. Fish and Wildlife for further examination.
Summers said they are still waiting for the test result which will tell them what killed the turtle, a threatened species.
