Guy And Neca Marcovaldi

By Jack Epstein/Praia do Forte

It's easy to see that Maria Marcovaldi loves sea turtles. There is an image of the long-lived beast (some reach age 70) on her T shirt. And miniature re-creations of the animal (which can grow to a length of 7 ft. and weigh 1,500 lbs.) hang from her necklace and earrings. Driving her Jeep along the beach at Praia do Forte in northern Brazil, she hits the brakes and suddenly does something surprising. She points with pride to a big 400-room resort hotel intruding upon the sea turtles' habitat. "We persuaded the owner to keep buildings low and use unobtrusive lighting," she explains. "That way the turtles don't get disoriented on their way to the water."

The "we" means she and her husband Guy Marcovaldi. Together Maria, 40, and Guy, 44, run Brazil's National Sea Turtle Conservation Program. Known less formally as TAMAR (from tartaruga marinha, the Portuguese words for sea turtle), the program protects the five species of marine turtles that trudge out of the Atlantic Ocean to make their nests on Brazil's beaches.

When Maria (known to friends as "Neca") and Guy launched the project in 1980, fishermen killed turtles for meat and poached their eggs. The skins became wallets, the shells jewelry. Mother turtles laying eggs on the beach were easy targets, and most of the 2-in.-long hatchlings never made it to the sea.

The Marcovaldis, who had studied oceanography together at Brazil's University of Rio Grande, resolved to stop the slaughter. With government funding, they enlisted a growing army of Brazilians to guard the sea turtles and their nests. Today 400 employees at 21 stations patrol 620 miles of coastline.

TAMAR would not have worked if the Marcovaldis had not convinced Brazilians that turtles were worth more alive than dead. Thanks to the program, visitors flock to see the great reptiles come out of the sea. In Praia do Forte the majority of the 2,000 residents have jobs in tourism.

The only person with cause for complaint is the Marcovaldis' daughter Nina, 12. "She feels she has to compete with the turtles for her parents' affection," admits her mother. "We are trying to spend more time with her." That won't be a problem for the turtles, since Neca and Guy have plenty of helpers to nurture the next reptilian generation.

--By Jack Epstein/Praia do Forte