Ocean Hero

When he was eight years old, Christian Miller decided to make a difference in the fate of an endangered species - the sea turtles native to the beaches near his home in Palm Beach, Fla. Shortly after his family moved there in 1984, Christian found a baby sea turtle dead on the beach. In his search for answers about the small creature and why it had died, he contacted the states Department of Environmental Resources, and soon became the youngest person ever to be trained to monitor and protect these imperiled amphibians!

"The best reward", he says, "is seeing the turtles crawl toward the ocean and swim away." But Christian, now 17, has received other rewards, too. He was recently named a finalist in this years Westinghouse Science Talent Search, and he has addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York as part of a U.N. Environmental Programs Global Youth Forum.

Ocean Planet Exhibition Floorplan

gene carl feldman (gene@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov) (301) 286-9428
Judith Gradwohl, Smithsonian Institution (Curator/Ocean Planet)