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After a 2 year in-person hiatus due to Covid, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission held their annual Marine Turtle Permit Holder’s Conference as a hybrid in person and virtual (for those who preferred). The Conference is held at a different location in Florida every year (we sure hope the Florida Keys will be on the list soon….). This year it was in Safety Harbor. Two of our main permit holders (Harry Appel, President, and Sandi Williams, Lifetime Member) as well as Jen DeMaria (Board Member) attended in person.
The event was a full agenda of sea turtle news, information, statistics, projects, updates and more. The preliminary nesting statistics were shared, however, since they’re not finalized we’ll be holding that information for a future newsletter. It’s safe to say that 2022 was a very good year for sea turtle nesting in Florida!
Despite the fact that nesting numbers appear to be quite good, the mortality rate is also increasing exponentially due to a myriad of causes including boat strikes, pollution, fibropapillomatosis (FP) and lighting disorientations.
Per FWCC, Florida and Oman are the largest aggregate loggerhead sea turtle populations in the world, however in an unsettling course of events, the population in Oman continues to dramatically spiral down, making the Florida population of loggerheads of even more worldwide importance as far as the survival of the species in general.
We learned that there is some new information on the FP virus, which is ravaging all species of sea turtles, but primarily Greens. If the sea turtle is infected with FP as a sub-adult, many seem to “shed” the virus and become clear of it as an adult if they survive to adulthood.
Inappropriate, illegal and non-compliant lighting continues to be of large concern in the State for sea turtle disorientations and deaths. The FWCC continues to work with several specialty lighting companies to make it more affordable and accessible for people to get sea turtle compliant lighting. Save-A-Turtle does free onsite lighting assessments for residents, government, lodging and any other entity in the Keys along the shorelines or off shorelines, which can still create background lighting. Save-A-Turtle also supplies information on where to purchase compliant lighting. Our mobile educational sea turtle trailer has just been the recipient of some additional donated compliant lighting, which is used to educate on what lights are compliant and what lights are not.
Also, for the first time in history, Save-A-Turtle set up a merchandise booth for fundraising at the Conference, raising almost $2,000 in a single day! We will surely do THAT again next year!
We would like to mention that although this Conference occurs annually at different locations around the State, our attendees pay their own expenses with the exception of the Registration Fee, which runs about $40 per person annually. Attendees pay their own transportation, meals, hotels, tolls and all other expenses. Save-A-Turtle donations are not used for travel.
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