Apr 16
As migratory reptiles, sea turtles spend the majority of their lives performing
some amazing feats of navigation, from hatchlings leaving the nest, to juveniles finding suitable foraging habitats, to adults returning to their natal beach to nest. How do they do it? What cues do they use? Would YOU be able to survive as a sea turtle? Come join Georgia Sea Turtle Center’s Director Dr. Bill Irwin as he presents information from his doctoral dissertation (Magnetic Orientation and Magnetoreception in hatchling loggerhead Sea Turtles) and other information about the sensory abilities of sea turtles. Learn how GSTC researchers and other scientists track turtle movements all over the world.
Where: Brunswick Library
When: April 28 @ 7 pm
Bill Irwin, Ph.D. was hired in January, 2007 as the Director of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island and oversees all rehabilitation, research and educational aspects of the center. Prior to coming to Georgia, Dr. Irwin served as professor of Biology in the North Carolina college system, as the Director of a large education center, and as an Educator with various organizations and institutions along the Atlantic coast. He has an A.S. in Computer Systems Engineering, a B.S. in Biology from the University of Massachusetts and a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Irwin has an extensive research background surrounding sea turtles including behavioral studies with hatchling loggerheads and is a member of the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group. Published works, primarily concerned with how sea turtles use the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate, have appeared in the Journal of Experimental Biology, Biological Conservation and Journal of Comparative Physiology.