June 16th is World Turtle Day, a day highlighting the importance of sea turtles and raising awareness about ways to protect them. In conjunction with this day, the County’s Sea Turtle Conservation Program, a part of the Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department is launching “Adopt-A-Sea Turtle Nest” – providing the community with another great way to show their love and support for the preservation and conservation of sea turtles nesting on Miami-Dade beaches.
Adopt-A-Sea Turtle Nest is a pilot program of the Sea Turtle Conservation Program. It gives individuals, families and groups the opportunity to symbolically adopt a sea turtle nest in their name at either Haulover Park or Crandon Park.
For their donation, adopters will have their names imprinted on a printable adoption certificate and on a sea turtle nest stake, to mark the site of the nest they are adopting. The adopter’s stake will remain for the duration of the nest’s incubation period, an estimated 45 to 70 days. Adopters will be notified by email when their nest has hatched.
Two hundred wooden sea turtle nest stakes were created for this pilot program. The work included the painting and assembly of the stakes, as part of an Eagle Scout project led by local boy scout Paul Mallas, who completed the project working with Troop #711 and the Sea Turtle Conservation Program.
On June 7th, the Miami-Dade Sea Turtle Conservation Team hosted a ceremony at Crandon Park to honor Mallas as the inaugural adopter for his work on behalf of the Adopt-A-Sea Turtle Nest initiative (Photos available upon request).
The Miami-Dade County Sea Turtle Conservation Program was established in 1980, as a crucial component of Miami-Dade County Parks’ efforts to ensure sea turtle survival. Today, program staff survey beaches throughout the county for sea turtle activity, from Golden Beach at the northern county line, south to the Village of Key Biscayne. This stretch includes monitoring for seven oceanfront municipalities and two county beach parks,Crandon and Haulover Parks.
During sea turtle nesting season, March 1 through October 31, each nest is marked and monitored throughout its incubation period. Data collected from the nest is then submitted to state and federal agencies to monitor management and recovery efforts.
