For those of you who had the pleasure of knowing Ross... I apologize for any duplicate postings
Sea turtle advocate Ross Witham dies
By Joe Crankshaw staff writer
February 28, 2004
STUART -- Ross Witham, a Stuart native who helped establish the science of protecting endangered sea turtles, died Friday morning at Martin Memorial Medical Center from complications of a stroke.
He was 86.
"He was a gentle man, a gentleman," said, Mabel, his wife of 58 years.
Witham was one of the pioneers in work to save sea turtles, said Peter C. Pritchard, Ph.D., director of the Chelonian Research Institute in Oveido, Florida.
"The term Grand Old Man has been over used, but that was what Ross Witham was, the 'Grand Old Man' of Florida sea turtle research," Pritchard said.
Born in Stuart in 1917, the son of a career Navy man -- and grandson of a worker at the Jupiter Lifesaving Station -- Witham joined the Navy in 1934 at 17, for a chance to travel and see the world.
Seven years later, he was a chief petty officer in charge of maintenance for a squadron of flying reconnaissance boats stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
On Dec. 7, 1941, he survived the Japanese attack on the floor of his barracks, watching as the battleship Arizona exploded and the Oklahoma capsized.
The attackers largely ignored the slow, bulky aircraft Witham serviced. After the attack, the planes were dispatched to search for the Japanese fleet.
The search was unsuccessful, he recalled in a 1991 interview.
"And it's a good thing," he said. "All we had to defend ourselves was an M-1 rifle."
His brother, Homer Witham, was the first aviator from Martin County killed during World War II. Martin County's airport, Witham field, is named in Homer Witham's honor.
Ross Witham returned to Stuart in 1944. A year later, cousins introduced him to Mabel Blasko, a Cleveland resident who became his wife for almost six decades.
It was a whirlwind courtship.
"His cousins were my best friends," she said. "They kept telling me about these handsome men down here. So when I heard he had come home from Jacksonville, I quit my job in Cleveland and came down. That was it. He proposed on our second date."
He worked as a dry cleaner, turnpike toll collector and county veterans service officer before leaving in 1950 to work as an aircraft mechanic at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
At the air station, Witham seriously injured his knee in a fall on a highly waxed floor. He was rated disabled, put on leave, and returned to Stuart.
Witham started regular walks on the beach to exercise his knee and strengthen his leg.
On one of these walks in 1957, he found a just-hatched sea turtle struggling to get out of a mass of sea weed. Witham extricated the turtle, and tried to help it, but the animal died. The incident stirred Witham's interest in the plight of endangered sea turtles -- and began what became his life's work.
Working with Salt Water Conservation Agent Roland C. "Boots" Byrd, who patrolled Martin County's beaches, and the Martin County Historical Society, which operated the House of Refuge Museum, Witham began transplanting turtle eggs to safe grounds at the museum.
When the turtles hatched, Witham kept them in an old dugout canoe and experimented on ways to feed them.
Commercial fishermen contributed from their catches. When the turtles reached one year in age, a stage Witham called the "chicken stage," they were released into the ocean.
Eventually, with the permission of the state, Witham and Byrd, now assisted by Stephen Schmidt, director of the museum, built concrete holding tanks for the young hatchlings.
It was the start of what would become a statewide Head Start for Turtles program directed by Witham, under the supervision of the Florida Department of Natural Resources.
"At the time he proposed the Head Start Program for turtles, the younger scientists sniffed at it, didn't think much of it," Pritchard said. "But now, within the past 10 years, his program is being revisited, and he is being vindicated."
Turtles raised in the program were tagged before release. In the following years, Witham received reports of their being found in Costa Rica, Western Africa, and as far north as New York.
Eventually, Witham's project at the House of Refuge and later on the Frank Wacha Causeway, would hatch and release some 28,000 turtles in a program he headed for 16 years. Witham retired in 1987 at age 70.
Before retiring, Witham traveled over most of the Western Hemisphere speaking on turtles. He testified before congressional committees numerous times, and was the spark behind state laws governing the display of lights along the beaches during turtle nesting season, for the protection of turtles and their nests.
Along the way, he earned a bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida, a master's degree from the University of Oklahoma, and a doctorate from California Coast University.
He became an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University, and was a research associate at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel Marine School. He authored or co-authored more than 27 scientific articles on marine sciences.
In addition to his wife, survivors include one sister, Katie Mason of San Diego; three sons, Randy of Palm City, Steven of Rio, and Timothy of Portland, Ore.; one daughter, Julie Hardwiger of Hobe Sound; and eight grandchildren: Kevin Ross Witham, Janvier Witham, Sarah Witham, Thomas Dow Witham, Patrick Ross Hartwiger, Eric Hartwiger, Hillary Hartwiger and Emlie Ann Hartwiger.
Arrangements for a memorial service are pending.
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A pioneering life
Born: 1917
Enlisted in Navy: 1934
Honorable discharge: 1944
Married: 1945
Started turtle research: 1957
Retired: 1987
Died: Feb. 27, 2004
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Sea turtle advocate Ross Witham dies
Generations of turtles testify to Witham's work
By Joe Crankshaw staff writer
February 28, 2004
The impact of Ross Witham's pioneering work in sea turtle protection is evident today in the number of endangered turtles nesting on the beaches of the Treasure Coast, fellow marine scientists said.
"Ross Witham had a profound impact on the field of sea turtle biology and conservation," Florida Atlantic University professors Michael Salmon, Peter Lutz, and assistant professor Jeanette Wyneken wrote in a joint statement.
"He was fortunate enough to live long enough to see some of the impacts of his work. Green turtles, a species he spent a great deal of time and effort protecting, have started to increase from very depleted numbers ... to an obvious increase of turtles now visiting Florida beaches."
Witham was the founder of the Head Start for Turtles program, which sheltered newly hatched sea turtles before releasing them into the ocean to give them a better chance of surviving into adulthood.
Another major contribution of Witham, who was an adjunct professor at FAU, was taking to the public about turtle protection at a time when many scientists preferred the laboratory to the lectern.
Witham also authored a children's book on sea turtles aimed at introducing awareness of the animals to youngsters.
The FAU scientists praised Witham's work with new biologists, volunteers and ordinary people in the field of turtle conservation.
"The central message was how to use all of the tools (past and present) for effective conservation," the three scientists wrote. "Ross did just that, and did it with style, grace and enthusiasm that simply never was lost."
Others in the marine field agreed.
"Ross Witham was a genuine pioneer in the conservation and protection of sea turtles," said Llewellylyn Ehrhart, professor of biology at the University of Central Florida.
"He was one of the first to care about sea turtles in our state. The work for which he gave four decades of his life is paying dividends to this day."
Jack Rudloe, director of Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Panacea, Fla., and author of "Time of the Turtle," said Witham "was one of the more significant people in sea turtle biology there has ever been.
"Personally, I believe he is the man responsible for the resurgence of the green turtle on our Atlantic coast."
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