Carol Ruckdeschel first visited Cumberland Island in the late 1960s as a research assistant at Georgia State University, taking up residence in the early 1970s. Sea turtles were her first focus, due to their all too obvious mortality, but her main interest was and is in the terrestrial ecology of the island. Ruckdeschel organized the stranding network (reporting dead or injured sea turtles), which was later taken over by the National Marine Fisheries Service. She has served as a researcher and observer for sea turtle nesting surveys, the Smithsonian Institution, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Ruckdeschel is author or coauthor of numerous articles, and the book Sea Turtles of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States.