PAULO FRIDMAN„SYGMA FOR TIME
GUY AND NECA MARCOVALDI
OCTOBER 19, 1998
The Best Friends a Brazilian Turtle Could Have
BY JACK EPSTEIN PRAIA DO FORTE
It's easy to see that Maria Marcovaldi loves sea turtles. There
is an image of the long-lived beast (some reach age 70) on her T
shirt. And miniature re-creations of the animal (which can grow
to a length of 7 ft. and weigh 1,500 lbs.) hang from her
necklace and earrings. Driving her Jeep along the beach at Praia
do Forte in northern Brazil, she hits the brakes and suddenly
does something surprising. She points with pride to a big
400-room resort hotel intruding upon the sea turtles' habitat.
"We persuaded the owner to keep buildings low and use
unobtrusive lighting," she explains. "That way the turtles don't
get disoriented on their way to the water."
The "we" means she and her husband Guy Marcovaldi. Together
Maria, 40, and Guy, 44, run Brazil's National Sea Turtle
Conservation Program. Known less formally as TAMAR (from
tartaruga marinha, the Portuguese words for sea turtle), the
program protects the five species of marine turtles that trudge
out of the Atlantic Ocean to make their nests on Brazil's
beaches.
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HEROES FOR THE PLANET
heroes gallery
Sylvia Earle
Niaz Dorry
Richard Wheeler
Guy and Neca Marcovaldi
Princess Basma
Hirofumi Yamashita
Legacy: Remembering Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Peter Raven
William McDonough
Russell Mittermeier
Robert F. Kennedy and John Cronin
Yvon Chouinard
Cynthia Moss
Ocean Views
SAFE TO HIT THE WATER
In 18 years, TAMAR has rescued more than 2,000 adult sea turtles
and helped 2.8 million hatchlings survive
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Audio Translation
"The oceans are important for mankind because they cover most of the planet. Sea turtles are important because they make up part of the marine ecosystem." -- Maria Marcovaldi
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Books on Oceans and the environment @barnesandnoble.com
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