We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jennifer Burns. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jennifer below.

Alright, Jennifer thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?

My hero is one you’ve probably never heard of: Capt. Morton Howard Hanson, or just plain “Mort”. Mort was a retired Navy captain and his first impression on people was usually the stereotypical gruffness of a career naval officer. But there was so much more to him than that. After retirement from the service, Mort and his wife Jan settled their family in Atlantic Beach FL and Mort became involved with early conservation efforts for sea turtles. This was led at the time by Greenpeace, during the latter part of the 1980s, and involved monitoring the local coastline at dawn for signs of turtle nesting activity and taking the appropriate measures to protect the incubating eggs of these endangered marine animals.

After a few years, Greenpeace ended their involvement and Mort took charge, as any great Navy captain would. He formed a nonprofit to continue their conservation work, and called it Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol. It’s also known by its initials (BSTP).

Mort headed up the organization until 2005, when he stepped down from the role of Marine Turtle Permit Holder and its associated administrative duties. But he still maintained a daily presence on the beach – working at nests, documenting stranded turtles, maintaining the ATV, and a myriad of other tasks – through 2017 when he chose to retire from field work.

Mort passed away on July 4, 2019 (4 years to the day that I’m writing this). I was asked by the family to speak at Mort’s Celebration of Life. I will share those words here so you can know something about this wonderful man who inspired me to devote decades of my life to sea turtle conservation.

“It is my great honor to represent the sea turtle patrol here today.

I first met Mort at the library during his volunteer recruitment meeting in 2002. I had absolutely no clue what I was going to do after I ‘enlisted’, wasn’t sure how I would like getting up before dawn or working under what I perceived at the time to be a somewhat gruff leader. But I was very drawn to Mort’s mission and his sincere passion and love for the sea turtles. I did not know at that first meeting that I had met someone who would add so much depth and dimension to my life; and that I would grow to love and appreciate Mort and his wife so dearly — not just for what they did for the sea turtles, but how they are ‘out in the world’.

Mort, Jan, and a couple of seasoned turtlers took me under their wing and helped me learn the skills to one day clone Mort’s turtle magic, a lofty goal indeed, that I’m still trying to achieve after all these years. I learned so much more about him aside from BSTP. I found how loving, warm and caring he could be for so many other things — his leadership and love of our country as a patriot and captain in the Navy; his commitment to faith and his church; his commitment to healthy living and leaving everything he touched better than he found it. He invested his time in me (and countless others over the years) to, not just complete a mission; but to help us grow and feel the accomplishment of learning, shared purpose, and making a difference.

I wish I’d known Mort in the early days as a pioneer sea turtle hero. He didn’t talk about them very often. It was never about personal glory or attention for himself; it was always about the turtles and the efforts of the entire team. He was in it for all the right reasons and was the right man for the job. BSTP would not be what it is today without him as our captain.

Mort was not just an example of a conservationist and community leader; but as a life-partner. Mort and Jan thoroughly enjoyed each other and their common interests. All most of us want out of life is love, acceptance, to feel like you matter, to make a difference in the world and to find that special person to ‘make it to the finish line of life’ with. Mort’s person was Jan, and he not only made it to the finish line with her, but he stands on the podium with a gold medal around his neck for the impact he made to his world and community. Thank you Mort, we love and miss you more than you could know.”

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

About Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol

Mission Statement: Working for the preservation of endangered marine turtles in Atlantic, Neptune and Jacksonville Beaches, Duval County, Florida, U.S.A.

BSTP is an all-volunteer non-profit corporation. Our goal is to keep the sea turtle population from experiencing a downward trend which could be irreversible. We are working to achieve our goal by:

1. Reducing the disturbance and harassment of nesting sea turtles by educating the public about the hazards of night-time beach activities and beachfront lighting.
2. Increasing the hatchling survival rate by educating the public about the dangers of lighting, human intervention, and pollution.
3. Contributing data to the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network and Florida Fish and Wildlife.
4. Contributing data to the Loggerhead Sea Turtle Genetics Tagging Project at University of Georgia.

• Original patrol volunteers worked with Greenpeace in the 1980s before forming an independent entity.

• BSTP was granted non-profit status in 1991 under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code and is recognized as a public charity under Section 509(a)(2).

• We work under the auspices of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Marine Turtle Program.

• All activities conducted by BSTP are supervised by the holder of the Marine Turtle Permit. Additional personnel are authorized to assist upon successful completion of training programs and other requirements as stipulated by FWC.

• BSTP receives no local, state or federal funding and is virtually dependent upon private donations. All work is performed by unpaid volunteers.

BSTP has received many awards and certificates over the years. Some of these include:
• 2020 Top-rated Nonprofit status from Great Nonprofits.
• 2019 “Best of the Beaches” Folio Weekly: Best Nonprofit (first place), Best Volunteer Effort (runner up)
• 2019 Presenter at National Environmental Monitoring Conference
• 2018 Beaches Watch Give Back Award
• Certificate of Appreciation for Exemplary Actions to Promote the Conservation of Florida’s Sea Turtles, from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Received annually since 2000.
• Melody Starr Anne Bishop Community Service Award: 2016-2017 from the Jacksonville City Council.
• 2007: Charter Bricklayer for GA Sea Turtle Center.
• 2006: Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Efforts to Beautify Jacksonville, from “Keep Jacksonville Beautiful Commission” and the City of Jacksonville.
• 2005: Charter Bricklayer for GTM-NERR Environmental Education Center.
• 2000: Recognized as part of state Cabinet Resolution sponsored by Bill Nelson to honor the work of sea turtle permit holders. The Resolution also declares June through October as Sea Turtle Protection months.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

None of these apply to BSTP as it is not a business in the conventional sense.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

None of these apply to BSTP as it is not a business in the conventional sense.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bstp.net
• Instagram: instagram.com/bstpjax
• Facebook: facebook.com/BeachesSeaTurtlePatrol
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/bstp
• Youtube: youtube.com/BeachesSeaTurtlePatrol