From Dr. Terry Norton, Direction and Veterinarian
For the past 2 weeks, Uzma Noureen has been working with us at the Center. Uzma is a turtle and wildlife conservationist and currently works for the Ministry of Environment’s Pakistan Wetlands Program. Her efforts in Pakistan have been focused on developing a conservation program for eight species of freshwater turtles. There is a serious illegal trade of many of these turtles, which are used for food and medicinal purposes in China. Additionally, she is involved with 2 freshwater otter species that are found in Pakistan. Poverty is the biggest obstacle to overcome with development of a conservation program for wildlife. Creating alternatives to exploiting turtles and other wildlife is a major challenge for conservationists like Uzma.
Uzma was selected to participate in the Asian Scholarship Program for in-situ Chelonian Conservation (www.ASPin-situCC.org) for 2009. The program sends its students to work with several turtle conservation organizers around the globe. This is the first year that the Georgia Sea Turtle Center has been involved with the program. Of the many great ways to conserve wildlife, the ASPin-situCC chooses students from Asia. All participants have a vested community interest in their local native turtles, primarily freshwater and brackish water inhabitants. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center was Uzma’s first training opportunity within the US. She was exposed to a wide variety of activities during her stay; loggerhead turtle nest monitoring on three Georgia barrier islands, night patrol for the saturation tagging program on Jekyll Island, diamondback terrapin conservation (rehabilitation, release, road mortality surveys, egg extraction, hatchling rearing, PIT tag plaements and shell notching,) observation of education efforts at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, 2 satellite transmitter placements, blood drawing, PIT tagging and flipper tagging sea turtles, and participation in a loggerhead sea turtle necropsy. She also participated in the release of three rehabilitated Georgia Sea Turtle Center patients on Amelia Island, FL. It is our hope that her experiences here will help in Uzma’s efforts to protect turtles and other wildlife in Pakistan.
We wish Uzma lots of luck as she travels to several other conservation organizations over the next few months while she is in the US. Her next stop is the Wetlands Institute in New Jersey.
Tags: coastal turtles, coastal wildlife, diamondback terrapin, Georgia, georgia coast, Georgia Sea Turtle Center, golden isles, jekyll island, loggerhead, pakistan wetlands, sea turtle conservation, sea turtle hospital, Sea Turtle Rehabilitation, uzma noureen
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Beachscape, July 2009, Uncategorized |
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