Did you know the idea for world’s largest music festival dedicated to ocean conservation came from a former record executive who grew up in Kentucky? Chris Stacey, founder and CEO of the Rock the Ocean Foundation, fell in love with the water early in his career during company trips to the Florida Keys. His interest in saving the seas came later, after he moved to Fort Lauderdale and took a free diving course, where he met someone who worked on the documentary film The Cove.

“He invited me to the premiere,” Stacey explained. “The documentary was about a pod of dolphins over in Japan that are being basically driven into a bay and slaughtered. And I’m a guy who owned a boat, and I dive, scuba, and fish, but I had no idea that stuff like this was happening in our oceans. It really struck a chord with me.”

“I came home and started Googling. I read that millions of sharks are harvested every year by humans, and that fish stocks are depleted. It was probably three o’clock in the morning when I finally went to bed,” Stacy said. “The next day, my best friend and I went freediving, and all of this was ruminating through my mind and how, even as an ocean lover, I had no idea. As we were coming back in, we passed this big, beautiful section of beach here in Fort Lauderdale, and I pointed to that beach and said we should do a music festival to call attention to ocean conservation.”

Stacey established the Rock the Ocean Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to bring awareness to issues impacting the world’s oceans and support scientific research, education, and ocean conservation initiatives. The Tortuga Music Festival was conceived to help fund the work of the foundation. Stacey used his background in the music industry to solidify the concert portion of the festival, but the conservation component was not in his wheelhouse.

“Literally the reason that I started the event was to call attention to the issues that are killing our world’s oceans, but I realized very quickly that I’m no scientist and I don’t know how to save the world’s oceans,” Stacey said.  “At that point, I tried to find people who were doing the actual boots-on-the-ground work. It turns out that right here in our backyard in Fort Lauderdale, there’s some really great science happening at NSU.”

“What Rock the Ocean and the Tortuga Music Festival have done an amazing job with is putting conservation at the forefront of the entire music festival,” says Derek Burkholder, Ph.D., director of the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program. Burkholder is also the NSU community outreach coordinator and a research scientist with the NSU Guy Harvey Research Institute and Save Our Seas Foundation Shark Research Center. “They use their influence to bring a huge bunch of people together and keep science, research, education, and conservation at the very center of everything they’re doing.”

Concert goers can learn what is being done to protect the oceans at Conservation Village, an area of the festival that features groups who are conducting the research and science necessary to make positive changes. Virtual reality shark dives, mock lionfish derbies, and coral planting have all taken place during the festival.

“I always say that Conservation Village is the heartbeat of the Tortuga Music Festival, and it has been since day one,” Stacey said. “Scientists are the rock stars of conservation, and we try to really put that spotlight on them and show the work that they’re doing to the world but in a fun and playful environment.”

“I honestly believe that if you’re interested in ocean conservation you could probably learn more by stopping by Conservation Village than you could by spending weeks of time online. The experts are right here, and they’re completely willing to share their work with you.”

The NSU Fisheries and Avian Ecology Laboratory was one of the organizations featured at this year’s Conservation Village. David Kerstetter, Ph.D., principal investigator at the lab and professor at NSU Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, notes that the organizers really wanted to affect positive change through the Conservation Village and NSU was in the right place at the right time.

“We want people to think about the fragility of the ecosystem that we have down in South Florida and just be nice to it. Appreciate the beauty that we have around us and recognize that a lot of us are working really hard to try to preserve that,” he said. “It’s been an interesting exercise to find new and creative ways to engage participants.”

Jordan Zulli, a graduate student studying marine science, was responsible for creating the content for the lab’s booth. Plans included interactive games, Instagram-worthy photos with a life-sized shark jaw, temporary tattoos, and conversations with the students and faculty members conducting research in the lab.

“Our lab does a lot of conservation work that the general public doesn’t think about,” Zulli said. “We study stingray species, parasite communities, and gear types for fisheries to reduce bycatch. Maybe it isn’t common knowledge, but we really enjoy talking about our work because it’s just as important as other conservation efforts that people do know about like shark tagging and beach cleanups.”

Zulli’s research currently focuses on stingrays, studying their age, growth, and reproduction patterns. People tend to have preconceived notions about animals like stingrays and sharks, and Zulli enjoys the opportunity to share why those creatures are important.

“The marine ecosystem would collapse without sharks and stingrays,” she said. “The festival is a really great opportunity to debunk some of those misconceptions.”

The festival takes place on a sea turtle nesting beach during sea turtle nesting season. Special permitting is required for the event to take place, and additional monitoring is one of the conditions that must be met to ensure sea turtles aren’t being affected. Every year, the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program provides the necessary monitoring, along with educational sessions for the production and construction crews.

“It’s inspiring to see how much they take it to heart,” Burkholder said. “Each year we do three Turtle 101 sessions where we speak with the groups that are building the stages to tell them why the rules and regulations are in place. They may not have any idea what a sea turtle looks like, but because they’re here on that habitat, we’re able to give them additional information and help to build respect for the location.”

In addition to Conservation Village and the concern for the sea turtle population, the Tortuga Music Festival is dedicated to sustainability. From a zero-plastic policy to solar generators and even compostable drinking cups, Stacey and his team work year-round to ensure that they minimize the impact of the event. Last year, 81.3 percent of the waste from this event was diverted from the landfills. The goal is to reach 90 percent and be certified as a zero-waste event.

“I always felt like it would be hypocritical to create tons of waste and burn tons of energy and be actually damaging the environment,” Stacey said. “If there’s a more sustainable option in the marketplace, we explore it. We’ve really raised the bar for the entire industry on how to make your event more sustainable.”

The Tortuga Music Festival is now in its 13th year, and Stacey hopes to continue to have the event for as long as possible. Burkholder hopes so, too.

“I hope that we continue to take advantage of the ability to teach so many people in a short amount of time about all the great work going on at NSU,” Burkholder said. “The partnership with Rock the Ocean is a great way to showcase that to a larger audience.”

“Tortuga is the Spanish word for turtle,” Stacey said. “Dr. Burkholder pointed out that the sea turtles that nest on the beach will come back here in 20 years and lay their eggs in the same place.”

“My hope is that just like these sea turtles that we work so hard to protect, we’re all coming back here in 20 years, bringing our kids, and enjoying the same experience.”