And he’s back! The Californian born, Bath rugby super-fan who’s dedicated his life to those sparky little critically endangered, juvenile Caribbean hawksbill sea turtles, returns from St John, US Virgin Islands, with news of a rather special naming ceremony.
Introducing Sally Nugent and Carol Kirkwood.
Scott Eanes, co-founder of Clean Break Properties in Bath is a marine scientist in pursuit of the protection and preservation of the very special hawksbill sea turtle, which is threatened, globally, with extinction.
Scott and his colleagues have set up The Hawksbill Project, a non-profit organisation, focused on helping community-based projects and local governments improve their capacity to conduct in-water sea turtle research to inform conservation strategies.
I asked Scott – why have you named these turtles after these two ladies in particular?
He explained: “I moved to England in 2019, and pretty much every morning, I watch Breakfast on BBC One. Sally is my news individual and realising the value of knowing the predicted weather for the day, Carol Kirkwood became incredibly important to me.”
Last year we named 15 of these beauties after the Bath Rugby first team players in a bid to raise awareness (and money!). We need to let the public to know that all sea turtles are listed globally as endangered. Hawksbill sea turtles have been made into jewellery for centuries in addition to being harvested for their eggs and meat. This has led to a sharp decline in their numbers. Estimated population in the Caribbean is 1% of their pre-European arrival.
WE CAN’T let these beautiful, gentle, graceful creatures go extinct. We need the public to know they need our help. Every pound, penny, pence helps!”
Sally and Carol have been contacted via social media and Scott had a response from Carol on Instagram. We have reached out to them at the BBC for any support they can offer in this crusade. At the very least we hope they will be flattered and amused.
Follow the project on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/the_hawksbill_project/
Take a look at this video of Sally Nugent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNJFR1Z2Lqc&feature=youtu.be
Take a look at this video of Carol Kirkwood
