Frederick Yeh

Frederick C. Yeh is a Chinese American wildlife conservationist and science communicator, who founded Sea Turtles 911, a non-profit sea turtle rescue and conservation organization that operates primarily in southern China, on Hainan island.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]}

Early life

Frederick Yeh, Chinese name 叶政廷, spent his boyhood witnessing sea turtles nesting on Hainan island's beaches, and then watched later as newborn sea turtles emerged to crawl into the sea.^[8] After moving with his family to the United States as an adolescent, Yeh attended American public schools and graduated from Johns Hopkins University.^[6][7][8] In 2007, Yeh returned to China for a visit and discovered that the endangered sea turtles no longer nested on Hainan island, and were instead sold illegally for their meat and shell.^{[1][3][6][7][8]} Yeh then changed the course of his life to establish China's first non-governmental sea turtle conservation organization.^[5][7][8]

Sea Turtles 911

Despite the desperate state of sea turtles in Hainan, Yeh was inspired by the success of Hawaiian sea turtle conservation when forming the organization.^[8] According to George Balazs of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the sea turtles of the Hawaiian Islands were also once under the threat of near extinction, but are now thriving.^[10][11] Thus, Yeh created Sea Turtles 911 under Hawaiian jurisdiction, and adheres to many of the ideas behind Hawaiian conservation efforts.^[8] Building a floating sea turtle hospital in a Hainanese fishing village known for its extensive sea turtle poaching, Yeh makes a point to work with people of all types to support sea turtle conservation in the area, including government officials, academia, fishermen and poachers, community members, local and international volunteers.^{[12][13][14][15]} At a sea turtle release event held at the Ritz-Carlton, Sanya, Yeh stated, "For our release events, if we can bring multiple sectors in our community together, it will be very beneficial to sea turtle conservation in China. It is my hope that we can put other issues aside and agree on sea turtle rights, for the advancement of sea turtle conservation."^[16][17][18] This strategy of community involvement has caused many locals to call him "Haigui" or "the returning sea turtle."^[8] Now, local coast guard police defer to Yeh's expertise and contact him when sea turtles are rescued and in need of medical attention.^[15][19][20] Sea Turtles 911 directs actions towards public education, policy change through government and academic sources, support of conservation-focused ecotourism, and the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of endangered sea turtles.^[8][10][19]

Activism

Yeh promotes marine conservation through publicized sea turtle release events in China, and is vocal about ending sea turtle exploitation in Chinese media.^{[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]} As he has said, "Their survival is our responsibility; we must create hope."^[31] During interviews with journalists, he is known to use metaphors to facilitate the understanding of environmental conservation to the public. Yeh cautioned the Chinese public not to delay the increased protection efforts of sea turtles until they decline to the same population level as China's cherished Giant panda.^[32] In addressing marine pollution problems in China, he reminds the public not to treat the ocean as an enormous toilet and garbage dump.^[32]

In an interview with China's official state-run news agency, Xinhua News Agency, Yeh called for a celebrity to help save endangered sea turtles by raising public awareness.^[3] Yeh was answered by former NBA basketball superstar Yao Ming, who consistently ranked #1 on the Forbes China Celebrity 100.^[33][34][35] Yao Ming joined Yeh in his public sea turtle release events and the duo sets free rescued turtles back into the wild, raising awareness together that leads people to "an epiphany that turtles belong in the wild, and not in the market.”^{[36][37][38][39][40]}

In China, poached sea turtles include endangered Green sea turtles raised primarily for consumption of their meat, and the critically endangered Hawksbill sea turtle raised for the trade in shell products such as jewelry, combs, eyeglass frames, and preserved trophies.^[6][41][42] During a speech condemning the use of sea turtle products, Yeh echoed Yao Ming's famous quotation, "When the buying stops, the killing can too."^[10][11]

Declaring July 4, 2012, as a day of freedom for all marine animals, Yeh led the release of an endangered Whale shark that had been caught accidentally by a Chinese fishing boat as bycatch, as well as two Green sea turtles.^[43][44][45] At this event, he proclaimed, "Sea turtle conservation does not only involve sea turtles. When we protect charismatic species such as whale sharks, those efforts spill over and protect sea turtles as well. These two animals share the ocean, and we must learn to share the ocean with them.”^[43][44][45] Holding humans accountable for sea turtle and Whale shark endangerment, he added that, "protecting them is humankind's responsibility."^[43][44][45]

On March 23, 2013, Yeh spoke out on climate change and global warming during Earth Hour, the one hour when the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) encourages businesses and households worldwide to switch off their lights to raise awareness on climate change. Sea turtle eggs are influenced by a biological process known as Temperature-dependent sex determination, meaning that their gender is determined by the environmental temperature.^[46] Yeh reminded the public, “As the global climate’s average temperature increases, more females will be hatched, jeopardizing sea turtle populations with an unbalanced sex ratio.”^[47][48]

Awards and Honors

On March 30, 2013, the Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China honored Yeh the 2012 Popular Science Award, in recognition for his significant contributions to public awareness of marine conservation.^[49][50]

References

External links

• Sea Turtles 911