Jacques Fretey
A lifelong herpetologist, Jacques Fretey began to focus on marine turtles thanks to encouragement from Dr. Archie Carr and Dr. Peter Pritchard while he was working in French Guiana as a researcher for the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in the late 1970s. While there, he conducted an inventory of chelonians in French Guiana and led studies of leatherbacks for more than two decades, tagging more than 10,000 animals. He later discovered the importance of the beaches of Gabon for leatherback nesting and beaches of Long Island (Antigua and Barbuda) for hawksbill nesting.
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Lily Venizelos
Lily Venizelos spent a great part of her youth on the Greek island of Hydra, where as a girl she got into trouble scaring away game birds that her father and his friends had intended to shoot. In 1974, a storm brought her yacht to shelter in Laganas Bay, Zakynthos, Greece, and she was completely enchanted by its pristine beauty. Five years later, she witnessed the invasion of bulldozers and jet skis that came with uncontrolled tourist development.
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Chan Eng Heng
Malaysia’s “Turtle Lady,” Dr. Chan Eng Heng has dedicated her life to protecting sea turtles through scientific research, lobbying, education, outreach, grassroots activism, and art. She has served as a professor at the Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, where she has inspired many students over the years, some of whom now hold key turtle conservation positions in Malaysia.
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