Many of the developed cays in the Abacos use sea walls to 'collect' sand, and grow beaches at the expense of their neighbors beach. The sea wall problem forces even the conservationist to erect his own. In the end, an entire beach becomes a collection of retaining units.

Karen Bjorndal, hand chosen as Director of the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research at the University of Florida, has been applauded for leading the modern sea turtle conservation efforts. As a specialist in green turtles, she determined that green turtles are essential to the health of the world's sea grass beds. Were this creature to disappear, the health of so much of our shallow waters, where our supplies of fish spawn and grow, would be in jeapardy.

But if Dr. Bjorndal is the scientific protege of Archie Carr's legacy, there is another conservationist who represents Archie's creative side. In addition to his research unit at the University of Florida, Archie Carr also founded the Caribbean Conservation Corporation. The CCC was the world's first sea turtle conservation group. Today, it is among the world's most successful.

Today, the CCC is led by Director David Godfrey, who offers that Archie Carr was more than a scientist and conservationist, but a deeply talented writer. "Through his science and his writing," David says, "he started the movement to save sea turtles, which has now spread across the world."

Archie Carr may be the father of sea turtle conservation, but many people consider his most important contribution to the world was his ability, through his writing, to convince other people to start their own nature conservation groups.

I explained the situation in Guana Cay, Bahamas, and how I found it amazing that there was so little data on the sea turtles there. I told David about my own experiences with them. I asked him about the lack of data on sea turtles in the Abacos.

He said, "I don’t know how much data Karen (Bjorndal) and her husband have, but there are definitely lots of sea turtles in (that part of) the Bahamas. It's good habitat for sea turtles. We track sea turtles that have nested in Florida and have headed directly to the Bahamas. Tens of thousands of turtles nest in florida in the summer, and they typically leave florida waters for places like the Bahamas."

I ask David if he think it is worth it to save just a few sea turtles.