Karen L. Eckert

Bio and Research:

Dr. Karen L. Eckert received her Bachelor's Degree in Biology with Highest Honors from Principia College in 1980, and later a Certificate in Global Policy Studies (1987) and a doctorate in Zoology (1988) from the University of Georgia. Her Certificate thesis was entitled, “Multilateral Conservation - A Critique of Past and Present Efforts in the Wider Caribbean Region”; her Dissertation was entitled, “Nesting Biology of the Leatherback Sea Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea”. She has been active for nearly three decades in the fields of sea turtle research and international conservation policy. She is currently Executive Director of the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WIDECAST) and a Research Scientist on the faculty of Duke University, North Carolina. She is based at the university’s Nicholas School Marine Laboratory.

WIDECAST embraces the largest network sea turtle research and conservation projects in the world, and is tasked with preventing the extinction of six species of endangered sea turtles in the Caribbean basin. Volunteer Country Coordinators serve in more than 40 Caribbean nations and territories, and the network emphasizes science-based tools in national policy-making and community conservation initiatives. Experts work closely with Country Coordinators, as well as with local WIDECAST Partner Organizations, to develop comprehensive national-level “Sea Turtle Recovery Action Plans”. WIDECAST assists government agencies and non-government groups in the implementation of priority Action Plan recommendations, as well as in the design and implementation of regionally harmonized research and management initiatives.

This innovative program is a model for multilateral marine resource management in the Caribbean region and throughout the world. For her work as Executive Director of WIDECAST, Dr. Eckert was inducted into the “Global 500 Roll of Honour for Environmental Achievement” by the United Nations in 1994. UNEP has characterized her as “one of the most important figures in conservation and grassroots community empowerment in the field of endangered species in the Wider Caribbean Region.” In 1996 she was among the first cohort of Pew Fellows in Marine Conservation, a prestigious 3-yr fellowship that specifically recognized her efforts to restore depleted sea turtle populations and to promote sustainable coexistence between Caribbean people and their marine resources. More recently she received the 2003 ChevronTexaco Conservation Award for “providing the world with a unique model that shows how people and marine life are not only able to coexist, but to flourish.”

In addition to her work with WIDECAST, Dr. Eckert's personal research has taken her throughout the Western Atlantic, and into the Mediterranean Sea, Eastern Tropical Pacific, and Southeast Asia. She is a valued consultant to many governments and inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations. She has published numerous scientific and general interest articles, technical manuals, and policy documents. Her most recent book, “Sea Turtles: An Ecological Guide” (Gulko and Eckert, 2004) is available from Mutual Publishing, Honolulu.

She is a member of the U.S. Pacific and the Atlantic/Caribbean Sea Turtle Recovery Teams, and the Marine Turtle Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. She served as Senior Editor of the Marine Turtle Newsletter, a scholarly bilingual publication with subscribers in more than 100 nations, for ten years (1988-1997), and is now a member of the Editorial Board.