However, a bit of planning is required when traveling internationally with an iPhone or it could end up costing you a lot of money. I thought I would share some of the tips and tricks I have picked up over the years.

First, add the AT&T MyWireless app to your iphone if you haven't already. That will help you manage your phone's features.

I always have AT&T World Connect and Expanded International Roaming turned on. AT&T World Connect is $3.99 per month and provides reduced rates on international calls from the US. You can also turn it off and on as needed. Expanded International Roaming is free and lets you make and receive calls while traveling in supported countries. You may need to call AT&T support to enable international calling if you haven't done so already.

When I am traveling I add...

AT&T World Traveler - $5.99/mo and gives you slightly reduced per minute rates when using your phone to make calls while traveling internationally. Check AT&T's website to see if your destination is covered. For example, in India normal international rates are $2.49/min, and $2.29/min with the World Traveller plan. So it would take about 30 minutes of phone calls to pay for this feature.

Data Global Add-On - This provides access to data while you are traveling outside the US. There are a number of plans ranging from $24.99 per month (20 MB) to $199.99 per month (200 MB). Check AT&T's website to see if your destination is covered. When I went to Australia I added the 100 MB plan and used almost all of it over a 2 week period, browsing the internet, checking e-mail and using Google Maps to navigate. I will use the 100 MB plan when I go to India this week. The nice thing about having the AT&T app on your phone is that you can upgrade plans if you start to run out.

The key to both of these features is to turn them off when you get home so you don't get charged for extra months. AT&T suggests that you wait until all of the international charges show up on your account before turning features off or you might be charged higher rates. What I do is turn the services on the day before I leave and then turn them off 30 days later right before the next month starts.

Finally, don't forget to put your phone in airplane mode or turn off international data roaming (in Settings) when you are not actively using the phone so that your phone and apps will not secretly consume your data plan. Airplane mode will block prevent the phone from using data and making or receiving calls. Turning off international roaming will turn off data usage, but allow you to make and receive phone calls.

Also check out the iPhone Travel Tips on AT&T's website.

Due to a series of delays this year, citizen lobbying for U.S. appropriations in support of the Marine Turtle Conservation Act (MTCA) and other Multinational Species Conservation Funds (MSCF) for some of the world’s most charismatic species has only just begun. The deadline for Congressional signatures on a letter to Interior Appropriations in support of MSCF programs is Wednesday, March 17^th.

Around the world, these programs make a huge difference to conserve marine turtles, rhinos, tigers, great apes, African and Asian elephants and neo-tropical migratory birds.

Please consider sending an electronic letter or making a call to your Congressional Representative asking that he/she support appropriations for these small but critically important funds by signing a letter to Interior Appropriations. More information, and the opportunity to send a letter, are provided on CCC’s website. The office of your Representative can be reached through the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121.

The MTCA was passed in 2004. Since 2005, it has provided 113 grants totaling $ 3.733 million to marine turtle conservation programs outside theUnited States and leveraged an additional $5.946 million in matching or in-kind funds. As many of you in our community live in the Southeast, we are asking for your help in encouraging your congressional Representatives to sign a letter to Interior Appropriations by the March 17^th deadline.

As constituents and interested citizens, your calls make a huge difference. Remember, in addition to everything else the MTCA supports, it also provides critical funding for the International Sea Turtle Symposium. This year Members of Congress signing the letter to Interior Appropriations will be requesting $2.5 million for the MTCA.

(Disclaimer: these quotes may be slightly out of context, a practice Limbaugh approves of but rarely warns listeners of when practiced on his show)

Radio star Rush Limbaugh is worried about sea turtles and is doing something about it. He and his neighbors in Florida know that just one light can kill thousands of sea turtles. "Giant sea turtles lumber out of the ocean, they trundle up to the beach, they dig the nest, they lay the eggs, and they trundle back to the ocean", says Limbaugh. "And then some weeks later the hatchlings hatch and they burrow up out of the sand and they are supposed to go to the ocean." But, says Limbaugh, "lights on the beach distract the hatchlings and cause them not to go to the ocean but inland. So, those of us who live on the beach have to turn the lights off."

Latest Headlines

<script language="JavaScript"> var newswidth=460; //set to desired width of news widget in pixels var newsbgcolor='#CFC'; //set to desired background color of news widget var newscolor='#000'; //set to desired text color of news widget var newsborder='#090'; //set to desired border color of news widget var newsdelay=5000; //set to desired delay between news rotations (in milliseconds) var newsfont=12; //set to desired font size </script> <script src="http://www.seaturtle.org/jslib/headlines.js" language="JavaScript"></script>
copy and paste code to your web page

However, SEATURTLE.ORG does run on an Apple Xserve and the website, content and tools are developed almost exclusively on a 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro and a 24-inch iMac. So chances are pretty good that any new Apple device will eventually make it's way to the SEATURTLE.ORG home office, where, it is safe to say, it will be used to save sea turtles.

Thousands of sea turtles have been rescued from the unusually cold weather experienced during the second week of January in the southeastern US. These turtles are being cared for by organizations from North Carolina to Texas. The unprecedented number of stranded sea turtles has left these organization scrambling for resources and forced them to spend funds typically budgeted for an entire year. Please help these organizations care for and return the rescued sea turtles to the wild by making a donation of money, time or materials.

Photos courtesy of NOAA

Below is a listing of organizations that need your help. This list is being constantly updated, so please check back often!

If you find a dead or injured sea turtle, please report it to the proper authorities.

NEWS

A Record 5000 Sea Turtles Cold-Stunned in Florida
2000 sea turtles rescued from unusually cold sea off Florida
Statewide turtle rescue hits historic proportions
Shocked by the biting cold, dying turtles get new life
Cold snap's toll just now being completely felt

Do you tweet about sea turtles? Drop me a line on twitter and I will add you to the list.

And, as always, get all of the latest news and updates from the sea turtle world by following SEATURTLE.ORG on Twitter.

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever", said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

Last 10 photos

<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript"> var slidewidth=110 //set to desired width of photo widget in pixels var slideheight=120 //set to desired height of photo widget in pixels var slidebgcolor='#FFC' //set to desired background color of photo widget var slidedelay=6000 //set to desired delay between image rotations (in milliseconds) </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.seaturtle.org/jslib/imagelib.js"></script>
copy and paste code to your web page

Last 10 photos in plastic category

<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript"> var slidewidth=120 //set to desired width of photo widget in pixels var slideheight=120 //set to desired height of photo widget in pixels var slidebgcolor='#FFC' //set to desired background color of photo widget var slidedelay=6000 //set to desired delay between image rotations (in milliseconds) </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.seaturtle.org/jslib/plastic.js"></script>
copy and paste code to your web page

Last 10 photos in hawksbill category

<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript"> var slidewidth=110 //set to desired width of photo widget in pixels var slideheight=120 //set to desired height of photo widget in pixels var slidebgcolor='#FFC' //set to desired background color of photo widget var slidedelay=6000 //set to desired delay between image rotations (in milliseconds) </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.seaturtle.org/jslib/hawksbill.js"></script>
copy and paste code to your web page

Note that you cannot put more than one photo widget on a page or they will conflict with each other.

If you are interested in including other categories from the Image Library in your website just let me know.

Similarly you can include a news widget that includes the latest sea turtle related headlines from seaturtle.org's news section.

Last 10 news headlines

<script language="JavaScript"> var newswidth=460; //set to desired width of news widget in pixels var newsheight=32; //set to desired height of news widget in pixels var newsbgcolor='#CFC'; //set to desired background color of news widget var newscolor='#000'; //set to desired text color of news widget var newsborder='#090'; //set to desired border color of news widget var newsdelay=5000; //set to desired delay between news rotations (in milliseconds) </script> <script src="/jslib/headlines.js" language="JavaScript"></script>
copy and paste code to your web page

You can also get nesting widgets by following these instructions from the Sea Turtle Nest Monitoring System.

I am looking for help in describing more specifically how seaturtle.org helps individuals and organizations around the world involved in sea turtle research and conservation.

If you use seaturtle.org, I would greatly appreciate if you could send along a short description of how one or more of the resources has helped to improve your sea turtle work. If English is not your first language, it would be great to receive a version in your first language as well!

Please note that I may use your contribution as an endorsement in seeking public support for seaturtle.org in the Giving Challenge (http://www.causes.com/seaturtle) or on the seaturtle.org website, so please let me know how you would like to be recognized (name and organization).

Please send feedback to mcoyne@seaturtle.org.

Thanks very much for your help!

The show ends with the sobering note that our plastic garbage will likely be our longest lasting legacy, outlasting our steel megastructures and monuments of solid stone. After 600 hundred years the plastic trash will have photo-degraded into smaller and more toxic elements and continue to impact wildlife long after we are gone (they even have a video vignette of a hawksbill sea turtle).

While our sudden disappearance from the Earth is unlikely, the take home message is that even if we were to completely stop using plastics today they will continue to accumulate in the environment for many years. Some significant steps are needed to gain control of plastic and mitigate the long-term price we are going to pay for our current irresponsible practices.

Photo gallery from the episode

This episode of Life After People will be airing again (all times are US eastern)...
Tonight (11 May) at 11pm
Tomorrow (12 May) at 3am
17 May at 5pm

But the worst part was the extreme hyperbole playing upon the completely bogus reputation of sharks as cold-blooded killers. Indicative of the overblown drama was the line "they are invading our rivers". Never mind that the rivers don't belong to us and that sharks and many other organisms have been using them long before humans even evolved. They repeatedly suggest that humans are in mortal danger because the sharks are moving in to fresh water. Complete bunk!

Left unmentioned was that IF the sharks are increasingly moving in to fresh water it is because we have wiped out their food resources in the ocean and they are looking farther afield for food. Or perhaps they have just always been there and we didn't notice it. The truth is that shark species around the world are in trouble because we have wiped out their food sources, fisheries that target shark fins and waste the rest of the shark, and a shoot first ask questions later mentality when it comes to sharks fueled by shows like this that continue to demonize these magnificent marine creatures.

One cool tidbit of info was that scientists believe that greenland sharks live up to 200 years, the longest lived vertebrate on the planet. But in general, this show represents the worst kind of human arrogance. Hopefully the first and last episode of this show we will watch.

I was invited to speak at the Duke University Marine Lab this week as part of their Seminar Series. The PhD students invite a different speaker each week. I recorded my presentation on "Education, Outreach and Collaborative Networks", or how seaturtle.org is working to network the global sea turtle community. The presentation is included below.

Google just announced an expansion of its popular Google Earth application to include seabed maps and underwater imagery. This new "Google Ocean" provides a powerful new tool for sea turtle researchers.

SEATURTLE.ORG's wildlife tracking tool allows researchers to open satellite tracks in Google Earth with the click of a button. By incorporating the sea floor in to Google Earth, Google has provided an exciting new way for researchers to visualize their wildlife tracking data.

Swim with Adelita

Take an 8-minute tour across the Pacific Ocean with Adelita the sea turtle.

Adelita was the first turtle ever tracked across an entire ocean basin using satellite telemtry...maybe even the first marine animal! Millions of kids shared her migration on the internet. Her migration helped to prove that loggerheads born in Japan cross the Pacific and feed in California and Mexico, before migrating back home to nest in Japan. She also reminds us that the oceans are connected and that we need to work together to protect sea turtles and their habitat.

These are the same bathymetry data used in SEATURTLE.ORG's STAT and Maptool resources.

This is a very exciting development, particularly if it means we are getting closer to the release of the long rumored Google Ocean product.