Jean Beasley bestowed with Albert Schweitzer Honors Scholars Award

Jean Beasley was honored Nov. 16, 2008 in King Hall Auditorium as the 2008 recipient of the Albert Schweitzer Honors Scholars Award.

The purpose of this award is to recognize a person in the Cape Fear area who exemplifies the attributes and ideals of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who received many awards for his humanitarian efforts. Previous recipients include Dr. Kenneth White, Mary Isaac Koenig and UNCW's professor Emeritus Gerald Shinn.

Kate Bruce, director of the Honors Scholar Program, opened the ceremony acknowledging the legacy of Schweitzer as well as Beasley.

The goal of this award is to "keep alive the legacy of the prizes from the Cape Fear area and Schweitzer ideals," Bruce said.

Beasley is the founder and Executive Director of the Karen Beasley Memorial Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Hospital located in Topsail Island, N.C. Beasley was also named the Hero of the Year by the Animal Planet Network in 2007. Her dedication to the rescue of sea turtles inspires hope for the unknown future of the animals.

Beasley gave a presentation entitled "Challenges in Conservation and the Canaries in the Coal Mine." The canaries referred to in her title were the sea turtles.

Beasley went on to identify specific challenges sea turtles face on beaches in North Carolina. Natural predators such as raccoons, foxes, birds, crabs and fire ants are a few of the many recognized. To Beasley, the natural food chain is inescapable and unfortunately sea turtles fall into the food chain; however, the natural species that prey on sea turtles are not the biggest concern, humans are.

"Humans are invading and degrading their habitat. We need to give them a place on the beach," Beasley said.

Beach chairs, tents, balloons and fishing gear are some of the things that endanger the turtles.

"Nobody can convince me that we cannot find safe ways to fish without hurting non-targeted species," Beasley said. "If we can put a man on the mood and rovers on Mars, we can do this."

Samples of dangerous ailments that had been removed from turtles, such as fishing hooks, hung on the front of the podium. Other things, such as boat propellers, nets and plastic are also some of the hazards sea turtles face.

"They have no vocal chords, which means no voice. All they have is us," Beasley said.