April 2019
Turtle Tracks Newsletter
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BOARD Meeting
Monday, April 8th 6:30 pm
1997 Long Beach Road, Big Pine Key, Fl
This meeting will be a working board meeting only. The public is invited to attend.
SAVE THE DATES: Details TBA
SAVING SEA TURTLES Movie
Sunday, May 5th
Tropic Cinema, Key West
NEXT Membership Meeting:
Monday, May 6th
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April, 13th.
10am-5pm
MOTE OCEAN FEST IS FAST APPROACHING!
Turman Waterfront, Key West
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SAT will be at Mote Ocean Fest. Come join us for some turtle talk, games and crafts for the kids, and check out our new turtle merchandise. We have some great activities for the kids planned!
Want to become a Beach Walker in the Fla Keys? Come talk to us about that too!
Click to read more about Ocean Fest!
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SAT Board Members Attend State Turtle Meeting
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SAT President Harry Appel, VP Sherri Crilly and Board Member Jennifer DeMaria, all Marine Turtle Permit Holders, recently attended the 2019 Florida MTPH Meeting in Orlando. This annual all day event hosts numerous speakers from the FWC, NOAA and many other organizations, all turtle related or course. Topics such as sea turtle nesting data, lighting issues, red tide, continuing conservation and protection actions, and education programs were discussed.
Photos to the right provide nesting data from 2018 (top) and estimated hatchling data from 2017 (bottom). Hatchling numbers for 2018 were not available at the time of the meeting.(Note: Photos are of slides shown during the meetings)
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Red Tide Impact on Sea Turtles by Alan Foley, FWC.
Red tide is a natural occurrence that has been happening for several hundred years. It is unknown at this time just how pollution effects red tide. The current event, which has been documented since Nov, 2017 on the West Coast of Florida from Pinellas to Collier County has contributed to the largest number of stranded turtles* due to a single red tide event.
*STRANDED TURTLES
is defined as dead, sick or injured sea turtles in Florida.
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This data is collected by members of the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network (STSSN) and includes up to 300 participants throughout the state, many who are volunteers, including our SAT Officers and Board members.
However, this red tide has had NO EFFECTS on hatchlings! How can this be?
Well, lucky for these little ones, red tide kills animals through ingestion. Since hatchlings do not feed for about a week and until they are out in a weed line, they are able to survive these events.
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Turtles in the News in March
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22 Malnourished Sea Turtles Transferred To Florida Keys...
MARATHON (CBSMiami/FKNB) - Twenty-two stranded juvenile green sea turtles, several encrusted with barnacles, indicating severe malnourishment, have arrived at the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital from two Central Florida facilities for...
Read more
miami.cbslocal.com
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Flippers Up! The First Leatherback nest of the season was reported in Palm Beach County on Feb 26th!
Leatherbacks are the largest of all sea turtles and can weigh up to 1500 lbs and grow to 7' long! They are the first turtles to nest on the beaches of Florida each season.
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Interested in Becoming a Beach Walker?
Last Chance to Sign up for 2019!
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Keys Training Date: April 18th
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If you live in Florida and would you like to walk the beach in search of sea turtle nests?
Become a part of a very special group of people who monitor sea turtle nesting activity here in the keys from mid April through October.
There will be a FREE mandatory 3 hour training provided by FWC that ALL volunteers MUST attend.Training is valid for 2 years.
LOWER KEYS RESIDENTS ONLY
: Please email Sherri Crilly, SAT VP and Marine Turtle Permit Holder at rscrilly@gmail.com
Live in Fla, just not the keys?
Click the link to the right to find your local training session.
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Squirt & Crush Remain Most Popular Names
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Save-A-Turtle offers "symbolic" baby turtle adoptions to aid our fundraising efforts. When you adopt a baby turtle, or 2 or 3, not only do you get to name your adopted babies, you will also receive a PDF file (suitable for printing) of an adoption certificate with a picture of hatchlings, their names and the parents names.
Please realize you are not adopting a live turtle. The adoption is symbolic and is offered as a way to help raise funds for our beach patrol supplies, education and conservation efforts.
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Adopt a Turtle
What will you name your hatchlings?
Starting at only $15!
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Thank You to Tiffany Duong
Coral Restoration Foundation
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Tiffany was our guest presenter for March and WOW! What a great presentation showing their organization's efforts to restore our coral reef tract. Our board members all pledged to do their part to help. Our reef tracts are so important to the health of the ocean. We urge you to become a part of the effort! There are so many ways to help from eliminating plastic use to becoming a volunteer diver or citizen scientist!
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Report Sick, Injured or Dead Sea Turtles in Fla to FWCC at 888-404- FWCC
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