Ridgely Kelly, 11, of Bremen, really loves animals.
His pet rat, Pickle, roams the house with him – at least until a visitor shows up.
Kelly’s menagerie also includes, or has at one time included, a Chinese water dragon, a gecko, a green anole, two green tree frogs and a red-eyed tree frog, not to mention the family’s chickens and dogs.
“Since he was two, he could open up books and name all the animal species,” Kelly’s mother, Eleanor Kinney, said.
It’s hardly a surprise, then, that after learning of the endangerment of the nautilus, a cephalopod native to the waters of the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the fifth-grader set out, along with friend and fellow animal lover Josiah Utsch, to do something about it.
Kelly and Utsch, 11, of Cape Elizabeth, met at a sailing camp in Northeast Harbor. Utsch’s grandmother, aware of her grandson’s passion for animals, sent him The New York Times article “Loving the Chambered Nautilus to Death” and he, in turn, shared the startling information with Kelly.
The problem, the article explains, stems from growing sales of jewelry and ornaments made from the nautilus shell, which dealers market as a cheaper alternative to pearl. The trade, scientists say, has brought about the near-extinction of at least one species in the Philippines.
As of today, however, the nautilus lacks any protection, partly due to a lack of information about the creature’s population and range. The future protection of the nautilus depends largely on scientists’ ability to gather this information by means of censuses.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service paid for a team of scientists to start a global census off the Philippine island of Bohol last summer. The nautilus’ range, however, extends far beyond this island – from the waters south of Japan to the Great Barrier Reef.
Enter Kelly and Utsch.
The friends e-mailed Dr. Peter Ward, a biologist at the forefront of the census effort, to ask how they could help. Ward’s reply led to their ongoing quest.
“We decided to start a website and collect donations and see if we can get enough to pay the cost of equipment and fuel and chartering a boat to see how many nautili there are,” Kelly said.
Kelly and Utsch built the website (www.savethenautilus.com) themselves and Kelly, a talented young artist, designed t-shirts, available through the website to raise money and promote the cause.
The website also asks visitors to call on vendors of nautilus jewelry, including the upscale department store chain Neiman Marcus, to stop buying and selling the products.
The public reaction has been positive. The Maine Public Broadcasting Network ran a story about the young environmentalists last month, and the fundraising total is approaching $2000, a sizable chunk of the $15,000 the boys hope to collect – enough to pay for a single data-gathering expedition.
“We get letters with checks and stuff and e-mails too,” Kelly said, including a $200 check and many donations in the $20-$60 range. Although the founders count multiple family members as proud patrons, the majority of donations come from “a lot of strangers” spread across several states, Kelly said.
Along the way, Kelly, a fifth-grader at the Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb who lists art, math, physical education and reading as his favorite subjects, has become the local nautilus expert.
The nautilus, hermit crab or periwinkle-like in appearance, gets around by adjusting the levels of gas in the many chambers of its ornate shell. It feeds on small crustaceans, such as shrimp, and is food for sharks and turtles. The jewelry trade, however, is what threatens the creature, whose age – 500 million years – predates the dinosaurs.
Impoverished fishermen in Indonesia and elsewhere catch the nautilus by lowering a baited rope and hawk the shells for $1 each. Anecdotal reports point to a dramatic decline in the fishery.
“I don’t really get why people like [the jewelry] more,” Kelly said. “I don’t think it’s very smart.”
Utsch and Kelley’s initiative has made fans out of Ward and Daniel Ashe, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, not to mention Kinney, Kelly’s mother.
“It’s great to have kids involved in conservation,” Kinney, an environmental activist with ties to the local sustainable agriculture movement, said. “Caring about other species and other things and being involved in things bigger than yourself is really important for kids to learn early on.”
The Save the Nautilus project, in addition to teaching the practical skill of website-building, marries Kelly’s “love of science and animals with his artwork,” Kinney said.
Kelly lists artist and scientist among a long list of career options including archaeologist, engineer, explorer and inventor. He hopes to have the opportunity, someday, to see a nautilus in its natural habitat.
“I think the nautilus is one of my favorite animals,” he said. “Since it’s been around so long, it’d be a shame for it to just disappear.”
