Dr. Donna Shaver - Authentic Texas

Monday, January 20

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Authentic Person

love at first sight

by Mike Carlisle

As a young university student, when Donna Shaver arrived at Padre Island National Seashore in 1980 from Syracuse, New York, she fell in love with both the ocean and saving an endangered species. “I had never seen the ocean or a live sea turtle before,” remembers Dr. Donna Shaver, reflecting on her first day as a volunteer with the National Park Service while studying at Cornell University. She adds, “My boss cautioned it was unusual, but that first day we collected two live stranded turtles and took them up to a rehabilitation facility.”

After introduction as a Student Conservation Association (SCA) volunteer assigned to work on a groundbreaking project to help save the quickly disappearing Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, Shaver joined the National Parks Service as a park technician following graduation. By 1986, she became the acting chief of resources management, leading the recovery program for the most endangered sea turtle in the world. “She is a pioneer in the protection of this species,” said Martha Villalba-Guerra, one of Shaver’s employees.

Recalling her Student Conservation Association (SCA) internship at Padre Island National Seashore over 40 years ago, Shaver says, “It changed my career and my life.” She truly reflects the outcome from the SCA mission, “to build the next generation of conservation leaders and inspire lifelong stewardship of the environment and communities by engaging young people in hands-on service to the land.” Taking inspiration from her father, a Naval Academy graduate, Shaver spent her first several years at Padre Island as a seasonal employee before joining the National Park Service on a full-time basis.

Dr. Donna Shaver — Dr. Shaver takes the opportunity during turtle releases to educate the public and attendees about the turtles and conservation efforts. | Mike Carlisle

During the early years of her career, Dr. Shaver discovered that most doubted the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle species recovery. But she believed in the premise of the original project that imprinted the Padre Island nesting grounds as the birthplace of turtles, which were raised and later released from Galveston into the Gulf of Mexico. Establishing the Padre Island nesting ground was important as a secondary protected site in the United States to Rancho Nuevo in Tamaulipas, Mexico. The entire experiment rested upon a once controversial idea that female sea turtles would return to the beach where they were born to spawn.

Even as years went by without any growth in the number of nests on Padre Island, Dr. Shaver continued stressing patience. She understood the sea turtles needed time. In fact, the original project turtles did not return for a decade, but in 1996 the first of tagged turtles finally returned to nest and lay eggs. “Some of the turtles that I incubated from 1978 to 1988 have come back and laid their eggs and I have incubated them as well,” Shaver later explained to ABC News. “Mother hen, grandmother hen.” Quite a feat even if you consider a couple thousand eggs per year were brought up from Mexico over those ten years, with the total number of eggs exceeding 22,000 eggs.

Dr. Shaver understood the vital importance of gathering accurate data about the migratory habits of the sea turtles to fully save the species. “No one really understood where the turtles went when they weren’t nesting,” said Shelby Walker, a National Park Service biological technician. Shaver brought understanding through data about turtle migration patterns gathered from satellite tracking in the 1990s.

Using satellite data, Dr. Shaver discovered local shrimping was largely responsible for interfering with sea turtle foraging through the Gulf of Mexico. Her findings lead to legislation that protected turtles from shrimping near Padre Island and enforced the use of turtle extraction devices (TEDs) in fishing nets, providing an escape hatch for turtles caught up in nets unintentionally. Today, DNA testing further confirms multigenerational turtle hatchlings have returned to Padre Island from the original hatchlings.

Dr. Shaver takes the opportunity during turtle releases to educate the public and attendees about the turtles and conservation efforts. | Mike Carlisle

“Her dedication to sound science is unparalleled,” Walker said. “She honestly cares about getting things right and getting the right information and getting it out to the world so that it can help the sea turtles.”

Once they are upon Texan shores, Dr. Shaver works tirelessly to ensure the safety of the sea turtles. Every year, especially during the nesting season from April through mid-July, she and her team train approximately 100 volunteers from the local community to assist in combing beaches looking for nests. When volunteers locate nests and discover eggs, they are brought back to an incubation room or a screened enclosure. Safe from predators like coyotes, the eggs are monitored and protected until hatched and later released.

Dr. Shaver’s labor of love is infectious, encompassing everything from leading volunteers patrolling nearly 40 miles of seashore to locate nesting turtles, sleeping on a cot just feet away from incubating eggs while waiting for turtle hatchlings to emerge, to educating the public about the importance of sea turtle conservation and their plight during daybreak turtle releases.

“I believe the work that Donna Shaver has done over her career has helped save this species from extinction,” said Cynthia Rubio, a supervisory biologist who works with Shaver. “Without her dedication, this species would be much worse off.” Rubio, who described Shaver as inspirational, and passionate about her work, said, “Rain or shine, if things go good or go bad, she’s always here, and I know she’s going to dedicate the rest of her life here too.”

Donna Shaver is known for her significant impact in the recovery and conservation of the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, bringing the species back from the brink of extinction, once as few as 300 nesting females but now 7,000 – 9,000 worldwide. Even after 40 years of research and achievement, her lifelong mission continues to be the preservation of sea turtles.

Beyond natural predators, development, fishing and poaching have taken a terrible toll on the once thriving Kemp’s ridley species, but Dr. Shaver is credited with enabling tens of thousands of endangered Kemp’s ridley turtles to safely hatch and paddle off into the Gulf of Mexico. “These creatures have existed for four million years,” Shaver explains, “and human activity nearly eliminated them in a short span of time. Our job is to right a wrong by protecting the turtle’s place in the web of life.”

Left Dr. Shaver and Cynthia Rubio collecting eggs from nests found by turtle patrols. Cynthia Rubio was Dr. Shaver’s assistant and right-hand person for over 27 years. | Courtesy NPS Right A juvenile Kemp’s ridley sea turtle

After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the Department of the Interior appointed Dr. Shaver to serve as the principal investigator to conduct a study of the impact on nesting and hatching of Kemp’s ridley sea turtles. As the Texas coordinator of the Federal Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network, Shaver has educated many other scientists throughout the state about sea turtle preservation.

The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle is still critically endangered. Dr. Shaver often explains that only 1 in 400 turtles released survive and without Shaver’s monitoring program, survival rates could drop exponentially. But turtle numbers continue growing as evidenced in 2017, when beach patrols found 353 nests in Texas. After decades of work, the number of nests has grown from a dismal 702 in 1985, to nearly 27,000 nests worldwide. However, the exponential growth modeled in the past has never materialized and the turtle numbers continue to ebb and flow without an explanation.

In July 2019, Dr. Shaver and her team conducted the 23rd release of the year, releasing 95 baby Kemp’s ridley sea turtles into the ocean during a public event on Padre Island. Other releases have reached as many as 450 in the past, but all the releases reflect the success of the program and provide the perfect opportunity to educate the public.

More than 14,000 people come from all over the country to witness the sunrise turtle releases. During turtle releases, Shaver brings the turtles up close and personal to the large crowds that come to witness the releases. As she walks along the long line of attendees, along with other volunteers and team members, each carrying turtles destined for the surf, Shaver enjoys sharing information and important facts about them. “Once they hatch and make their way to the water,” she said, “they swim furiously for 48 hours until they settle into the drift of the coastal waters.” Thousands of turtles released over the years illustrate the success of her dedicated efforts to save the species and establish a stable nesting ground.

Along with proven success and passionate education came national attention. The National Park Service has increased the turtle conservation program funding over the last couple of decades, while Shaver has secured millions of dollars in grant funding to support her work. Mina Williams, a retired professor from Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, describes Shaver as a “pioneer conservationist,” who has “brought national and international attention” to the sea turtle program at Padre Island National Seashore.

Today, Dr. Donna Shaver is the Chief of the Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery for the National Park Service at Padre Island National Seashore (PAIS). She oversees a variety of sea turtle research and conservation projects conducted in Texas. Shaver is also the Texas Nesting and Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvation Network Coordinator. She holds biology degrees from Cornell University, Texas A&I University, and her doctorate in zoology from Texas A&M University in College Station.

Dr. Shaver has a passion for educating the public and has delivered more than 400 scientific presentations and authored or co-authored more than 90 publications and reports dealing with sea turtles. She has shared her fascination and preservation message through interviews in the New York Times, Washington Post, as well as programs like the DayTripper, Texas Country Reporter, and Discovery News.

Over the years, Dr. Shaver has received numerous recognitions and multiple awards for her work locally, nationally, and internationally, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Endangered Species Recovery Champion Award, the National Park Service Director’s Award for Natural Resources Research, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sea Turtle Society in 2018.

When Corpus Christi Mayor Joe McComb presented Dr. Shaver with a letter of commendation from the city in 2020, Shaver was humbled and quick to share the honor. “It’s recognizing the work that I perform, but also that so many others in our area have helped with,” Shaver said, “Thousands of volunteers throughout the years and many employees, it’s been an effort to try to preserve and protect the magnificent species so that they can be enjoyed by future generations here.”

In 2020, Dr. Shaver was a finalist for a Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal, one of the highest honors for a federal public servant. Often referred to as the “Sammies” or “Oscars of Government Service”, Shaver was the first NPS employee top five finalists since 2008. She shared the honor with other government employees like Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Dr. Donna Shaver was named the 2021 Texas Distinguished Scientist at the annual meeting of the Texas Academy of Science.

In 2024, Dr. Shaver was chosen as the “Woman of the Year Distinction” honoree at the Annual Spring Luncheon of the prestigious Coastal Bend Women Lawyers Association. She shared the honor with other notable past honorees that include Janet Reno, Mary Lou Retton and Sylvia Earle.

But, once again, she humbly acknowledged the honor belonged and was shared with thousands that have supported preservation and protection efforts past, present and future. Shaver works tirelessly to educate and seek future generations that will continue the invaluable work. “It’s an endangered species success story in the making – in the making!” Shaver said.

From her initial internship and introduction to the Texas coast, Shaver followed her career path in public service “to dedicate my career to helping recover dwindling sea turtle populations and study these animals. I have spent my working career doing so.”

After nearly forty-five years, Dr. Donna Shaver, continues to play an instrumental role in restoring the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle species to their former abundance in the Gulf of Mexico. “I want to finish my career by passing on my expertise and preparing someone who will carry the baton, educate and inspire, because it will all be for nothing if no one carries it on after I am gone.” Shaver explains.

Not limited to Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, Shaver is deeply committed to conservation, protecting and preserving all sea turtles vital to marine and beach ecosystems around the world.

“A lot of people said, ‘oh no, you’ll never be able to make a career out of that,’” Dr. Shaver recalls, “It’s been lots of highs and lows, but a blessing in many, many ways that I’m still here working with great people.”