Delta Zeta Alumnae in the Greater Orlando area
07/10/2023
✨Alumna Accomplishment Feature: Kendra (Cope) Bergman
Kendra graduated from the University of Tampa and was a member of the Delta Beta chapter.
Six years ago she founded Costal Connections, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to the survival of sea turtles and involving people in their conservation success stories. She is extremely proud of the staff and the volunteer program they have built. Together they have grown to over 100 trained volunteers, and thousands of pounds of debris we have cleaned from critical waterways.
The accomplishment she is most proud of is starting a research partnership with Dr. Mariana Fuentes from Florida State University to use animal borne camera. This allows her to study the underwater life and behaviors of the critically endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles. This long term project has taken (and continues to take) a lot of planning, financial resources and energy to travel to, locate, catch and attach releasable cameras to these hard to find turtles. The data gathered by these cameras will not only provide insight to the threats these turtles face daily in shallow water areas of Florida, but will also provide insight to their natural behaviors, habitat choice, food choice, and how they interact with other animals in the same environment. This information will be used to inform local natural resource managers and guide endangered species policy in the US.
Big projects like the project take a lot of time, and require good professional relationships between partners. This is also extremely novel work, they are the only group in the world studying Kemp's ridley turtle behaviors and threats using underwater cameras. Going to conferences, professional meetings and workshops to network and continue learning has proven to be critical to building partnerships like the one we have with Dr. Mariana Fuentes and her lab.
