Kara Dwyer Dodge Turks & Caicos Islands, Spring 1997 Sea Turtle Stranding Program Coordinator Marine Mammal Stranding Program Assistant Coordinator NMFS Northeast Region B.A., Biological Anthropology Harvard University 1998

Photo: Kara with a rare fresh dead leatherback that was found floating off of Sandwich, Massachusetts - no discernible cause of death was found during necropsy.

Kara hails from the small coastal town of Scituate, Massachusetts. Boats and fishing are a way of life there, and she grew up around lobster boats, fish piers and clam flats. After earning her Bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1998, she spent the next year in the West Indies working on projects ranging from sea turtle conservation in Barbados to marine reserve productivity in St. Lucia. Today, Kara works for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusettes on marine mammal and sea turtle stranding and entanglement issues.

Kara's primary responsibility is to assist with the oversight of 13 Stranding Network agencies from Maine to Virginia.  Her general duties include keeping a database of Northeast Region marine mammal strandings records, oversight of cold stun sea turtle strandings data and sea turtle entanglement reports, oversight of marine mammal parts registration, marine mammal release requests, and establishing sampling protocols.  In addition, Kara works on national initiatives for the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, including the Prescott Grants Program. 

Since Cape Cod is a stranding hot spot for both marine mammals and sea turtles, working at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole has been a great experience for Kara. "My proximity to the stranding action on Cape Cod has allowed me to hone my necropsy skills on a variety of species, including harbor porpoise, sperm whale, gray seal, green sea turtles, kemp's ridley sea turtles, loggerhead sea turtles and leatherback sea turtles," said Kara. "One of my ongoing projects is the establishment of a Northeast Region Sea Turtle Disentanglement Network to address sea turtle (primarily leatherback) entanglement in fixed gear.  My current duties keep me both challenged and busy and I feel fortunate to work with a dedicated group of people and organizations both inside and outside of the National Marine Fisheries Service."