>From Maria Wojakowski. The symposium "Head-starting Turtles-Learning from Experience" has been approved for the Joint Meetings of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, 7-12 July 2010, in Providence, Rhode Island. The committee was impressed by the very diverse team of professionals from around the world that plan to come to Rhode Island to report their results and discuss this important topic.
Our goals are to encourage people involving in turtle head-starting projects to address academic concerns concerning hard-starting, to compare a series of examples of serious head-starting projects using a common set of criteria for success, to learn which, if any, conservation practices are more likely to lead to success. It is not the goal of this symposium to present head-starting as the solution to all turtle conservation problems, or even to promote head-starting itself. We specifically intend to invite some critics of head-starting to speak as well as practicioners, in an effort to promote dialogue. Head-starting is a controversial topic in turtle conservation that has received little serious academic examination. Here we are focusing on head-starting itself, that is, the release of captive ?raised hatchlings for conservation purposes. We are distinguishing head-starting from translocation generally, which can also include releases of wild-caught adults. I am reaching out to people who might be interested in making a presentation at this symposium. Please prepare a title and a draft abstract following the standard format for these meetings (see instructions below) and send it to me by 31 October 2009. In preparing your abstract, please remember that the goals of this symposium are to encourage people to address academic concerns concerning hard-starting, to compare the successes and failures of examples of serious head-starting projects, and to learn which, if any, practices are more likely to lead to success. I am distinguishing head-starting from translocation generally, which can also include releases of wild-caught adults. Therefore, please be explicit about the goals of your project and rely on your data to justify conclusions about success or failure. Your abstract submission can be updated later, but I would like to see a serious effort now. I am expecting that have at least one full day of 15 or 20 minute talks, so please plan accordingly. In some cases it may be possible for more time. Some people are involved in large, long term projects that address more than one goal (i.e., both education and conservation) so there may be more than one talk on the same project. Please prepare a title, abstract for each presentation, and full list of authors for each talk you would like to give. Several of you have asked about publication of the results of this symposium, and I am currently looking into the possibility of publishing a multi-authored book, or submitting manuscripts as a group to a journal for joint publication. Please keep this in mind as you prepare your abstract. I have been promised a small amount of funding to assist speakers who do not have access to sufficient funds to attend the meeting. I am actively seeking more support so that I can support more speakers. If you will need support, please let me know. Unfortunately, I am sure I will not be able to support everyone who needs help, but I will do the best I can. Even people who ultimately cannot attend may contribute to the resulting publication. Finally, please spread the news about this symposium to relevant colleagues. There is room to expand the symposium if we get more good presentations, and we have some gaps I would like to fill. For example, we have very few sea turtle papers, and that is regrettable because there has been a lot of work on sea turtles. 1. The title should be short and informative. 2. Abstracts should state briefly and clearly the purpose, methods, results and conclusions of the work. The abstract must be a single paragraph that is no more than 250 words. 3. Be sure all authors approve of the abstract 4. List all affiliations and authors. The affiliations include Institution name, city, state/region, and country. The order of affiliation must match the order of author (i.e., affiliation 1 is for author 1, affiliations 2 is for author 2 and author 3, affiliation 3 is for author 4, etc.). Send your abstract as an attachment to me at [email protected]
