While studying the migration patterns of endangered sea turtles using satellite tagging technology, George Shillinger, MS ’97, (right) a doctoral student working with marine biologist Barbara Block at Hopkins Marine Station, showed his data to Mark Breier, whom he knew through their mutual work with Conservation International. Breier ’81, MBA ’85, a venture capitalist with a marketing background, took one look at the data and exclaimed, “That looks like a race!” And so the Great Turtle Race was hatched.
With the backing of sponsors ranging from schools and nonprofits to multinational corporations, they launched a website in April 2007 to display—in near-real time—tracking data from 11 leatherback turtles as they made the 500-mile journey across the Pacific from nesting beaches in Costa Rica to feeding grounds around the Galapagos Islands. The largest of the group (which is saying something since leatherbacks can weigh up to a ton) was dubbed Stephanie Colburtle in honor of fake TV pundit Stephen Colbert. Stephanie made the trek in 12 days to finish in second place to Billie, sponsored by the Offield Center for Billfish Studies. But the real goal of the “race” was to raise awareness of the dangers these turtles face in the open sea: miles of hooks and fishing nets and floating plastic refuse that resembles their jellyfish prey. In that respect, all the turtles were winners. Thanks to the famed “Colbert bump,” traffic to the site spiked to 3.5 million hits.
This year’s race, which begins in mid-April, will follow Atlantic turtles tagged in remote Canadian foraging grounds to their nesting grounds in the Caribbean. Shillinger’s group also is providing tracking data on turtles and other marine animals for Google Earth’s recently launched ocean explorer. These tools give people “an animal’s-eye view of the ocean,” Shillinger says. “What captures people’s imagination is seeing that there’s life out there.”
