Sea Turtle Program Receives Adopt-A-Nest Donation

The 2019 sea turtle season has started! It began with Gumbo Limbo Sea Turtle Day. There the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program, managed by Halmos College, received a $7,700 check from the Adopt-a-Nest program. This long-standing partnership between the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation and the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program supports sea turtle conservation in Broward County.  The conservation program employs 23 field workers who are primarily NSU Halmos College graduate students or recent graduates. They patrol over 38 km of Broward County beaches each morning at dawn, from March 1 through September 30. Endangered sea turtle nests are identified, marked, located by GPS and sometimes relocated from intensely lighted beaches to avoid hatchling disorientation. Fifty percent of all funds raised from the Adopt-a-Nest program comes directly to the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program.

People interested in this program can adopt their own nest, or give it as a gift.

Florida accounts for 70% of the nation’s sea turtle nesting and Southeast Florida, from the Space Coast to the Gold Coast, is the second most important nesting area in the world for loggerhead sea turtles. Broward County serves as a consistent nesting area of three specific species of sea turtles: the loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtle, the green (Chelonia mydas) sea turtle, and leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) sea turtle. By monitoring nests and creating public awareness, the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program (BCSTCP) helps protect these fragile creatures.