Kari Gehrke with female Green nesting turtle going back to the ocean.

This summer I was able to go to Costa Rica and work with Green sea turtles in Tortuguero. Also while I was there I was able to do my own research on if plastics found on the beach had any affect on sea turtle nesting. I was there for three months and had an amazing time. I loved working with the turtles and being able to go to a different country.

After I got back form Costa Rica I wanted to look for what might be my next step into doing what I want to do for the rest of my life. So I looked around my area and was only able to find one organization that worked with sea turtles. That is what made me start my internship at seaturtles.org.

I am a senior in college and about to graduate. I want to work with sea turtles as my main job and I want to work with them in the water. I’m not to sure what I exactly want to do so far but I do know that I want to work with them in the water. My next move after college is to take a year off of going to school and get more field work in working with sea turtles. After this I also plan on starting my PhD work at a school that has a sea turtle graduate program. I hope this all works out for me and I am excited to get it done.

Teal showing some turtle love at SailFest 2012! Photo: Kristyn Jensen.

People always ask me, why sea turtles? What makes you love them so much? And despite the fact that they have outlived the dinosaurs, are an important keystone species for our ecosystem, are greatly endangered, and amazingly cute, there is something deep in me that knows that they are my love.  After having experience in eighth grade in Baja, Mexico tagging turtles in the Sea of Cortez, and then spending four years studying biology, I guess you could say I have found my passion.

But after graduating, we are all faced with the question of what do we do now? It took me a little while to remember this dream of mine from the eighth grade to go into sea turtle conservation, and even still I was held back by not knowing how to get into this world of sea turtle advocacy… Until I found the Sea Turtle Restoration Project. After writing to them expressing how much I loved sea turtles, and that I would move across the state to come work with this group, they offered me the opportunity to come work for them here in Marin County, and I have been so happy with it.

Even though I have only been here a month, I have already experienced and learned so much about what it takes to run a non-profit, and it has opened my mind to how much there really is to learn and do to protect sea turtles! I feel like I have actually gotten to make a difference, whether it is responding to school kids letters, or researching scientific articles on Hawaiian turtles, or helping to create policy that could change the whole system of how fishing industries work, it has been so rewarding. I recommend anyone looking to jump-start their career in sea turtle biology, or just someone with a great passion for learning more about non-profits. Plus, the staff is super friendly and accommodating, which is really great to have such great support behind all of these projects.