Ascension Island

Darwin Initiative

Foreword

(by R.C Huxley, Administrator, Ascension Island)

21st October 1998

In 1986 Jeanne Mortimer (then University of Florida) wrote to the then Administrator:

"Ever since the 1930's the protection afforded the green turtles of Ascension has been exemplary. The turtles and their eggs have been protected in a manner unparalleled at nesting beaches anywhere else in the world."

One of my prime objectives as Administrator is to maintain-and indeed enhance- this policy by encouraging all who come here to respect these wonderful marine creatures and thereby help to ensure their continued survival.

As an enthusiastic, but wholly untutored layman on the subject of turtles, I have become fascinated by them. Much is known about their behaviour- but conversely, many key facts remain a mystery (for example how they navigate the 1 200 miles from the shores of Brazil to this tiny speck in the middle of the South Atlantic and back again).

So I am delighted to welcome the team from the University of Wales Swansea. Helped by a grant from the British Government's Darwin Initiative Fund, the team will undertake new research and also enumerate and monitor the turtle visitors who come here every year from December - May.

I wish our visitors well and their project every success.

Roger Huxley
Administrator