Marine Researchers and Educators benefit from Tortuga Music Festival

by John Bell on 8 Oct 2014 The popular Rock the Ocean’s Tortuga Music Festival, which has drawn national acts and tens of thousands of fans to Fort Lauderdale beach, is promoting ocean conservation and awareness with post-concert check presentations to support the cause behind the music.

This month, more than a dozen organizations that participated in the Guy Harvey Conservation Village are receiving donations from the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation and Rock the Ocean Foundation. The two foundations thanked concert co-founder and producer HUKA Entertainment, which set up the infrastructure for the Guy Harvey Conservation Village and donated a percentage of ticket sales to support the cause.

The entities receiving donations represent a broad array of organizations and missions, including university science programs, independent research centers and conservation groups. Three sea turtle groups will receive funding, noteworthy given the two-day concert is named after this crucial marine species.

This year’s Guy Harvey Conservation Village drew more exhibits than the inaugural one in 2013. And the 2014 music festival, held April 12-13, raised 20 percent more for marine conservation and research organizations than last year’s event.

'We are proud to say that, in only our second year, the Guy Harvey Conservation Village increased in number of exhibits and in the number of total dollars our partner organizations received,' said Steve Stock, president of the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation. 'That’s a tremendous success by any measure.'

'It’s incredibly rewarding to see our Conservation Village organizations benefit directly from their involvement in the festival,' said AJ Niland, CEO and co-founder of HUKA Entertainment. 'Knowing these contributions have a direct impact on their ability to perform research, action and outreach in order to preserve and defend our world’s waterways and ecosystems is wonderful motivation for us and the entire community.'

Rock the Ocean Foundation founder Chris Stacey said the Tortuga Music Festival has brought to life his vision of uniting the best and brightest in music, working to raise awareness about the issues currently impacting our oceans and their delicate ecosystems.

'I am proud that this event can help to raise not only awareness, but also significant funds for our Conservation Village partners,' said Stacey. 'These folks fight the fight for ocean conservation tirelessly. To know that we can have some small part in helping them do more research or help find solution to the problems that are killing our world’s oceans is exactly why I started this event. I hope this is only the tip of the iceberg for what we can achieve and give back!'