MEMBER OF THE MONTH – JUNE, 2004
Anna Rebeca Barragan Rocha
Country: Mexico
Occupation: Researcher and Field Coordinator of Proyecto Laud (Mexico)
Best part about my job: Being able to make a difference in sea turtle conservation (and star gazing!)
Biggest challenges I
face: Building a bridge between “our world” of sea turtle academy and management and the “parallel universe” of local, isolated communities that actually live with sea turtles and that have no idea that the other world exists
The most unusual or
exciting thing that's happened to me while working in the field: I was excavating a leatherback in situ nest in Sandy Point, USVI and I was holding an unhatched egg, trying to figure out if it had a live embryo in it when it hatched in my very hand
Why I like being a member
of the MTSG: I like to contribute my two cents
Turtle researcher /
conservationist I most admire:
Laura Sarti, for being able to continue despite many many barriers
When I'm not working on
turtles I like to: Lie down and read a good sci-fi novel and listen to music
Ten years from now, I
hope I will be doing: I hope I will be bringing in more new, energetic blood by mentoring and advising students, especially Latin American students, more than I do today
Picture note: That turtle was found a few minutes before midnight on New Year's Eve of 2000. Her name is "Millenium", and believe me, you can't have a better New Year's celebration than sitting beside a leatherback. We brought a bottle of wine with us to the beach, and had a toast for the recovery of the Pacific leatherback. It was a lot of fun.
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