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Angels of the
Seas
Conservation Initiative
Conservation Initiative
Organization Name:
Ladies, Let’s Go Fishing!
Southeast Florida Chapter
Project Name: Sea Turtle Hatchling Rescue Project
Category: New or existing ladies clubs, all-women's group
Reason for project: In Broward County, Florida, mother sea turtles crawl onto our beaches during the summer months to lay their eggs. Unfortunately, due to development, a large percentage of sea turtle hatchlings are disoriented by the bright lights on Broward’s shores, and they head towards the artificial light where they walk onto roads, fall into drains, or become dehydrated and use their small energy reserves wandering the beach in circles.
Our project is to help an existing sea turtle hatchling rescue organization fulfill their mission. They have asked for the assistance of concerned local citizens, and our chapter has stepped up to assist them. There are never enough eyes on the beach to find every disoriented baby turtle, and we want to lend our own eyes to the organization in order to greatly increase the number of hatchlings that make it to the water.
Brief description of project: Sea Turtle Oversight Protection, STOP, is an organization whose mission is to rescue disoriented sea turtle hatchlings in Broward County, Florida. STOP has one of only two permits in the state from Florida Wildlife Commission(FWC) to allow trained volunteers to ensure that sea turtle hatchlings reach the water’s edge after leaving the nest.
STOP desperately needs people to watch sea turtle nests that are due to hatch to ensure that the baby turtles go toward the water where they will live and grow, rather than onto the road to be crushed and killed. The Southeast Florida Chapter of Ladies, Let’s Go Fishing! unanimously agreed to help STOP by watching nests along the coast of Broward County during the evening hours when turtles hatch. Each chapter member will work under the supervision of a STOP Lead Volunteer. We want to help ensure that the next generation of these beautiful, endangered marine creatures makes it to the ocean in order to begin their life cycle of growth.
In addition, the chapter is coordinating members’ attendance at the workshop “Sea Turtles and their Babies” at Anne Kolb Nature Center in Dania Beach in August. This program is sold out to the general public. Many chapter members have attended this program in the past, and we are providing seats for new members and members who missed it. Participants will learn to identify the species of sea turtles found in South Florida, their habitat, breeding and nesting, identification of crawls and nests, conservation efforts, past exploitation, and current management problems now facing sea turtles. As part of the workshop, members will accompany a naturalist on a hatchling release to see what these tiny creatures face during their first crucial minutes of life.
Goal: To ensure that thousands of baby sea turtles who hatch along the shores of Broward County, Florida, make it to the ocean rather than being disoriented onto dunes, drains, and roads where they would surely perish.
Species and/or habitat involved: Leatherback Sea Turtles, Green Sea Turtles, Loggerhead Sea Turtles
Geographic area involved: Beaches of Broward County from Hillsboro Beach to Hallandale Beach. STOP provides daily maps of nest locations when they are within the hatch out window.
Desired result of project: While it is unknown how many baby turtles we will save from disorientation, we can quantify our efforts. We are pledging 60 nights of assistance from our 60 members between now and the end of September when hatchling season ends. Members will give time as they are able, and some may give one night and some may give many, and we pledge to have members on the beaches as many nights as possible, schedules and weather permitting.
How will project be accomplished? Debby Bradford, chapter member and permitted STOP volunteer, will coordinate chapter members’ geographic location and available times with STOP’s lead volunteers along the county’s coast to ensure that members will have an opportunity to volunteer every night that they are available to assist. Chapter members have already started volunteering. We will be unable to take photos or videos of the turtles hatching, so instead we will keep a log of members’ hours, and we will ask them to provide a written or videoed account of their experiences helping the baby sea turtles. These will be posted on the website available to us through this project.
What community/geographic area will this serve? Sea turtles lay their eggs and and the babies hatch in Broward County, Florida. However, the sea turtle population worldwide is declining, and so our efforts to ensure that more baby sea turtles reach the water to get a head start on reaching maturity will have a global impact.
Approx. number of people working on project: 30 or more
Project Name: Sea Turtle Hatchling Rescue Project
Category: New or existing ladies clubs, all-women's group
Reason for project: In Broward County, Florida, mother sea turtles crawl onto our beaches during the summer months to lay their eggs. Unfortunately, due to development, a large percentage of sea turtle hatchlings are disoriented by the bright lights on Broward’s shores, and they head towards the artificial light where they walk onto roads, fall into drains, or become dehydrated and use their small energy reserves wandering the beach in circles.
Our project is to help an existing sea turtle hatchling rescue organization fulfill their mission. They have asked for the assistance of concerned local citizens, and our chapter has stepped up to assist them. There are never enough eyes on the beach to find every disoriented baby turtle, and we want to lend our own eyes to the organization in order to greatly increase the number of hatchlings that make it to the water.
Brief description of project: Sea Turtle Oversight Protection, STOP, is an organization whose mission is to rescue disoriented sea turtle hatchlings in Broward County, Florida. STOP has one of only two permits in the state from Florida Wildlife Commission(FWC) to allow trained volunteers to ensure that sea turtle hatchlings reach the water’s edge after leaving the nest.
STOP desperately needs people to watch sea turtle nests that are due to hatch to ensure that the baby turtles go toward the water where they will live and grow, rather than onto the road to be crushed and killed. The Southeast Florida Chapter of Ladies, Let’s Go Fishing! unanimously agreed to help STOP by watching nests along the coast of Broward County during the evening hours when turtles hatch. Each chapter member will work under the supervision of a STOP Lead Volunteer. We want to help ensure that the next generation of these beautiful, endangered marine creatures makes it to the ocean in order to begin their life cycle of growth.
In addition, the chapter is coordinating members’ attendance at the workshop “Sea Turtles and their Babies” at Anne Kolb Nature Center in Dania Beach in August. This program is sold out to the general public. Many chapter members have attended this program in the past, and we are providing seats for new members and members who missed it. Participants will learn to identify the species of sea turtles found in South Florida, their habitat, breeding and nesting, identification of crawls and nests, conservation efforts, past exploitation, and current management problems now facing sea turtles. As part of the workshop, members will accompany a naturalist on a hatchling release to see what these tiny creatures face during their first crucial minutes of life.
Goal: To ensure that thousands of baby sea turtles who hatch along the shores of Broward County, Florida, make it to the ocean rather than being disoriented onto dunes, drains, and roads where they would surely perish.
Species and/or habitat involved: Leatherback Sea Turtles, Green Sea Turtles, Loggerhead Sea Turtles
Geographic area involved: Beaches of Broward County from Hillsboro Beach to Hallandale Beach. STOP provides daily maps of nest locations when they are within the hatch out window.
Desired result of project: While it is unknown how many baby turtles we will save from disorientation, we can quantify our efforts. We are pledging 60 nights of assistance from our 60 members between now and the end of September when hatchling season ends. Members will give time as they are able, and some may give one night and some may give many, and we pledge to have members on the beaches as many nights as possible, schedules and weather permitting.
How will project be accomplished? Debby Bradford, chapter member and permitted STOP volunteer, will coordinate chapter members’ geographic location and available times with STOP’s lead volunteers along the county’s coast to ensure that members will have an opportunity to volunteer every night that they are available to assist. Chapter members have already started volunteering. We will be unable to take photos or videos of the turtles hatching, so instead we will keep a log of members’ hours, and we will ask them to provide a written or videoed account of their experiences helping the baby sea turtles. These will be posted on the website available to us through this project.
What community/geographic area will this serve? Sea turtles lay their eggs and and the babies hatch in Broward County, Florida. However, the sea turtle population worldwide is declining, and so our efforts to ensure that more baby sea turtles reach the water to get a head start on reaching maturity will have a global impact.
Approx. number of people working on project: 30 or more
