Our 4% giveback helped support the Sea Turtle Conservancy's Sea Turtle Protection Project.
Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC) recently launched a project to conduct important research and conservation activities focused on the protection of sea turtles that utilize the nearshore waters along Florida’s Big Bend (also referred to as the Nature Coast).
Their research to date has uncovered previously-unknown sea turtle aggregations or “hot spots” in this region, including green turtles, which were once scarce due to over-fishing, but now congregate by the thousands in this “developmental habitat.” Florida’s coastal waters provide important foraging habitat for juvenile loggerheads, Kemp’s ridley, hawksbill, and green sea turtles that originate from nesting beaches throughout the Atlantic and Caribbean. Unfortunately, the sea turtles and other animals inhabiting the seagrass beds of Florida’s northwestern Gulf coast face many threats. Given its long record of success and a home base in Florida, STC is well-positioned to conduct a long-term sea turtle research, protection, and education program along this relatively undeveloped and under-studied coastline.
Research Goals and Objectives
• Hand capture or net capture sea turtles at high abundance sites, “hotspots”, to determine their
size, health, sex, diet, and genetic structure.
• Conduct sea turtle surveys and record the habitat to develop models and determine environmental factors driving sea turtle abundance.
• Satellite and acoustic tag sea turtles to determine their home range, diurnal, and seasonal movements.
• Place animal-borne cameras on sea turtles to determine their foraging behavior and
response to threats.
Learn more about the Sea Turtle Conservancy here.
