Save-A-Turtle

February 13^th Meeting

7:30 pm at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon

We have Justin Gould with Sea Turtle Oversight Protection (STOP).  WHAT DOES STOP DO?

Sea Turtle Oversight Protection (STOP) nighttime survey volunteers monitor sea turtle nests in Broward County. STOP counts the number of hatchlings that emerge from each nest in real-time on the beach as it happens. This requires many months of long nights on the beach.

In 2011, STOP Volunteers rescued more hatchlings than the previous 3 years combined. Since 2007, STOP has rescued more than 25,000 sea turtle hatchlings from illegal lighting in Broward County.

We are excited to hear Justin speak about their successes and how they have gotten to where they are.  We hope we can learn a lot from STOP and help our hatchlings here in the Keys!

Hope to see you at the meeting?

Save-A-Turtle needs turtle nesting surveyors!!

Upper & Lower Matecumbe Key

Long Key – West End

Grassy Key – Bayside and Oceanside

Long Beach – Big Pine Key

Boca Chica Beach

Key West Beaches

YEAR ROUND VOLUNTEER

HELP WANTED

Save-A-Turtle needs a person(s) to mail out new membership packets and adoption certificates!  This can be done from your home, wherever you live.

We also need a member that lives in the Keys that would be willing to take over mailing out our T-Shirt orders and that could bring them to our monthly meetings and special functions!

If you live in Islamorada and can pick up mail from our P.O. Box and redistribute, please let us know!

Please call Rick or Lori at 305-743-9629 if you can help!

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Marine Turtle Research

2012 Turtle Nesting Beach Survey Workshop

Wednesday, April 11^th

6:30 pm to 9:30 pm

Marathon Government Center

Mile Marker 50

This is a required class for all turtle nest surveyors to be permitted by the State.

Join Save-A-Turtle Thursday Night at Salty’s Waterfront Bar and Grill/7 Mile Marina in Marathon.

Happy Hour starts at 4 pm and the contest starts at 6 pm to 8 pm. All proceeds will go to Save-A-Turtle!

Please join us on Monday, January 9th at 7:30 pm at The Turtle Hospital in Marathon or on Tuesday, January 10th at the Eco Discovery Center in Key West at 6:30 pm to hear Cameron Jaggard with Pew Environmental Group speak about surface longlining in the Gulf of Mexico and the impacts on sea turtles and other marine life!

See you there?

To our Save-A-Turtle friends and family check out this turtle movie.

http://mail.aol.com/34561-111/aol-6/en-us/mail/get-attachment.aspx?uid=32043401&folder=NewMail&partId=1&saveAs=turtles.wmv

Save-A-Turtle would like to thank everyone who attended our annual banquet.  We had great raffle prizes and it was a FUN evening.  Thank you to Elaine and Monay of Bahia Honda State Park for the wonderful entertainment.  Thank you to John and Carol for their generous donation and also to Kim for her generous donation.  Thank you to Kyle for gifting back his BIG win on the 50/50 raffle.  We can’t thank everyone enough for supporting Save-A-Turtle of the Florida Keys!!

Don and Margie Jensen

The Florida sea turtle nesting season has come to an end, and there is good news for two of Florida’s federally endangered sea turtle species. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and its partners documented a record high annual nest count for green turtles in Florida. Leatherback turtles also had a high number of nests, with the count falling just shy of the previous high mark in 2009.

Loggerheads, the species that nests most commonly in Florida, did not have an increase in numbers this year. The nest count for this federally threatened sea turtle was close to average for the previous five years. However, since 1998, the trend in the number of loggerhead nests is a general decline.

“We’re pleased with the green turtle and leatherback nesting totals in 2011,” said Dr. Blair Witherington, an FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute scientist. “Nesting by both species has been rising dramatically and can be attributed at least in part to major conservation efforts over the past few decades. However, our loggerhead nesting totals have declined or are at best stable, which suggests that this species has a different, and perhaps more difficult, set of conservation challenges,” he said.

Nest counts are performed each year through Florida’s Index Nesting Beach Survey, which was created to measure seasonal sea turtle nesting, and to allow for accurate comparisons of beaches and years. The standardized index counts take place on 255 miles of selected beaches along both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

In one of the largest wildlife counts in the nation, hundreds of FWC partners diligently survey Florida’s nesting beaches throughout the sea turtle nesting season.

“We are grateful for the large number of partners and volunteers that make this survey possible,” Witherington said. “Without them, we couldn’t collect nesting data on such a large scale.”

The FWC’s role in coordinating Florida’s sea turtle nest counts is funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and sales of the state’s sea turtle license plate.

For more information about sea turtle nest counts, visit MyFWC.com/Research, click on “Wildlife,” then click on “Nesting” under the “Sea Turtle” heading.

Sick or injured sea turtles can be reported by contacting the FWC Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922).

Photos: Go to MyFWC.com/News and click on the headline for this story.

To view this press release online visit http://myfwc.com/news/news-releases/2011/october/10/sea-turtle-success/.

Please join us on Saturday, November 5^th, for our annual banquet.  This year it will be held at Key Colony Inn.  Cash bar at 6:30 pm and dinner will be served at 7:30 pm.   Please RSVP as soon as possible.  It will be a great evening for everyone to get together and share old and new turtle stories, see old and meet new turtle friends!  See you there?

PDF Reservation Form:

Banquet RSVP 2011