Leatherback in Seaside. 10-07

This is Isabel a.k.a. " Izzy". She was created to raise awareness to the fact that we have sea turtles here in Oregon. She was inspired by Marc Ward and was brought to life with the help of Marc & Rachel Ward, Kristen Shauck and students from Clatsop Community Colleges Upward Bound Program. You can visit Isabel at the Seaside Aquarium in Seaside, Oregon.

Nesting female Leatherback.Costa Rica 12-2003

The Lance Ferris Memorial Challenge

2008

  Goal 1) To remove Marine Plastics Debris contamination from our nesting area.

  Goal 2) Create a data base of items found in the contamination to analyze the make-up of debris.

  Goal 3) Raise global awareness to the volume and environmental impact of this Marine Plastic Debris contamination.

  We have removed marine plastics debris from our nesting area annually for the last 10 years, never analyzing the debris but simply burning it at first and then sending it off to the landfill,when we got help paying for the landfill fee. It was our first attempt at managing thousands of pounds of marine plastics debris that accumilates in our marine turtle nesting area on Punta Pargos every year.

  We became more organized in the effort as time went on and managed to get the debris all to local landfills. There is just now an effort to develop re-cycling efforts that can reach out to secluded areas, we hope to be selling the debris to re-cyclers by 2009. Punta Pargos is located in a marine plastics sink so when we get to that stage some of the cost can be payed for by selling the thousands of kilos of MPD.

  Why Lance Ferris? I barely knew Lance but he had worked on the front lines of the marine plastics debris problem for years, co-founding Australian Seabird Rescue. Lance was personally responsible for saving 1000 pelicans from monofiliment fishing line I believe. We wanted to honor Lance for all the work he has done to counter act the effects of MPD on the environment and also how he lead the way in MPD research for Australia. We also got inspiration from the work he has done that helped get us through our task. My favorite Lance Ferris story is how he went to the Colleges that were doing mass balloon releases and schooled the Institution on damage to wildlife from balloons.You would think that a large institution of higher education would know this, but it took Lance on the front lines removing balloons from injured wildlife to really bring this to the attention of the public. We thought that his inspiration could lead us to a higher level of performance for the incredibly large task we have of managing the marine plastics debris that enters our nesting area everyday. You did inspire us Lance, thank you. For more on the Lance Ferris Memorial Challenge go to the Lance Ferris Memorial Challenge page.