By Eugene Ford

Environmental groups that want younger generations to support their causes may want to look at the Caribbean Conservation Corp. This nonprofit's mission to get youth involved in saving sea turtles has largely been realized through Internet technology.

Through its Turtle Survival League program, CCC uses satellites to track sea turtles while, at the same time peaking elementary and middle school students' interest in the turtles, their habitats and threats to their safety.

The program outfits sea turtles with battery-powered transmitters affixed to their shells with a nontoxic glue. The transmitters usually work for about three months if they aren't damaged.

Students in participating classrooms can access the CCC Web site and view location maps, which pinpoint the movement of about 30 sea turtles as they swim through the waters of the Caribbean and southeastern United States.

"Our program has really proved to be an effective way of getting young students to take a personal interest in the lives of sea turtles," says Sue Ellen Smith, communications director of the Gainesville, Fla.-based CCC. "Every one of our sea turtle has a name, and I think that gives them a real identity in the eyes of many students."

Battery-powered transmitters allow teachers and students to track the movement of sea turtles.

Teachers who sign up for the program receive a free 40-page educator's guide, which includes information on habitat preferences and behavior and migration patterns of sea turtles.

Students often supplement the teacher's guide by logging onto the CCC Web site, where there is a library of sea-turtle material. Students can watch video clips of sea turtles from the Web site, and they can use a bulletin board to ask scientists and researchers questions about the creatures.

CCC partners with these scientists, who come from the U.S. Geological Survey, Army Corps of Engineers, National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Partnerships with private researchers and government agencies keep the program going.

Often, the information about the sea-turtles is provided by researchers who buy time on private satellites to track the sea-turtles for their experiments.

Once a researcher receives coordinates describing the latest position of the sea-turtles, they relay the data to the CCC staff, who post it on the maps.

The sea-turtle tracking program, which is primarily funded by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and Turner Adventure Learning, has become the "crown jewel" of the CCC's outreach efforts. The program has reached about 8,000 educators and 240,000 children since 1996.

In 1998, nearly $18,000 in new membership revenue was generated through the Web site. More than $30,000 likely will be raised by the end of 1999, according to Smith. About 30 percent of the CCC's total membership funds are raised through its site.

"It has become an important outreach tool that has exceeded our expectations," says Smith. "For a minimal fee we are able to reach a pretty large audience, advance our conservation efforts, raise the environmental awareness of our young people, and boost our membership base."

The CCC -- founded in 1959 by Dr. Archie Carr for the purpose of saving sea turtles through research, education and advocacy -- now has approximately 3,500 members.

Eugene Ford can be reached at
this e-mail link.