![[a picture of the logo of the Sea Turtle Conservation League of Singer Island]](c_image_.jpg)
The Sea Turtle Conservation League of Singer Island's monitoring program was the subject of a film done by the Hallmark Channel for its "New Morning Program." It is a 4 to 5 minute segment of the show and airs various mornings of the week at 7:00 a.m. Basically, the segment features our groups' President, Debbie Sobel, as spokesperson and focuses on the regular Saturday morning volunteers as they patrol the Singer Island beach. These volunteers are 4 teachers from Palm Beach County and they cover the beach every Saturday morning as a group looking for nests, false crawls and hatches.
We were so delighted with being chosen for this program!!. What a wonderful boost for our turtles and for our group!!
Thanks go to the Hallmark Channel. Tune in a 7:00 a.m. every day and you may catch one of the airings of our segment.
Students from the University of Central Michigan's Summer Alternative Break Program will be here from August 18th through August 25th. Just as in past summers, the student volunteers will join us every morning to monitor the beach for new nests and they will also spend time at the MarineLife Center in Juno Beach and at MacArthur Beach State Park. It's always great to have the students join us. They bring such enthusiasm and idealism to their internships and they are a pleasure to have around.
On Saturday August 14th, local members of The Sierra Club joined our President Debbie Sobel for what has become their annual walk to check for turtle nests from the night before. We love to have them join us on the beach and we are grateful to The Sierra Club for publicizing the walk in their monthly publication bringing needed attention and publicity to our sea turtles.
Once again this year we applied for and received grant money to further our work. This year the funds came from proceeds from the Sea Turtle License Plates program in the State of Florida. The monies have enabled us to buy 2 digital cameras, waterproof paper for field work and equipment for enlarging, printing and laminating photos for educational purposes. We have been been able to use the photos for presentations at booths at Special Functions such as Earth Day, for invited turtle talks around the area and for volunteer training.
The rarest of the world's sea turtles, a species that lays its eggs almost exclusively in Rancho Nuevo, Mexico, on the Gulf Coast, nested at the north end of Jupiter Island in Martin County, according to an environmental consulting company whose biologists witnessed the animal.
A Kemp's Ridley sea turtle came ashore numerous times in May and June about three-quarters of a mile north of the St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park's south boundary near the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge. After weeks of trying, the turtle finally succeeded in digging an egg hole and nesting.
It is only the 10th Kemp's Ridley sea turtle nest documented in the state since 1993 and the first on the Treasure Coast. The Kemp's Ridley, named after fisherman Richard Kemp who discovered one in Key West around 1880, is the most endangered of the seven sea turtle species.
Biologists put a cage around the nest on Jupiter Island to protect it from predators. The eggs hatched around the end of July.
The summer of 2003 marked the third year in which we are able to welcome a group of summer interns from the University of Central Michigan. Read more about this program and see pictures of our intrepid volunteers on our Summer Internships page.
On August 3rd, our President Debbie Sobel, was accompanied by 23 people from the Sierra Club for a morning turtle walk. The walk went well in spite of the heavy rains that we had on Singer Island during the night before the walk. Debbie was able to excavate a loggerhead nest and a leatherback nest for the group. There was still one leatherback left at the bottom of the nest so the Sierra Club group was able to see something rare and unusual.
We had a booth set up on Saturday, June 14th at the Riviera Beach Ocean Mall on Singer Island. It was part of the Father/Son Day festivities at that location in honor of Father's Day and all kinds of turtle related goodies were for sale along with brochures and artifacts.
We have a new brochure and it is being distributed. The creation and production of this new brochure was made possible by the grant our group was awarded for the 2002-2003 fiscal year from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. We received $2000 and we believe we have put the funds to excellent use.
Erosion continued to be a problem on the north end of our stretch of Singer Island beach. We hope that a dune restoration/enhancement program sponsored by the Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resources Management and the State (and finally completed in late 2003, early 2004) will prove beneficial along with sand deposited by seasonal storms so that the returning sea turtles will have plenty of space to nest. The difficulty with beach renourishment versus dune restoration/enhancement lies in the challenge of finding sand that is compatible with the sand already naturally on the beach. We'll keep you posted!
The Sailfish Marina is located at 98 Lake Drive, Palm Beach Shores, Singer Island and the Sunset Celebration runs from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm every Thursday evening.
If you are interested in helping us "man" the booth, please E-mail us and let us know. We'll get back to you right away. I will give you dates to choose from if you would like to do it.
During the summer of the 2002 nesting season, we started our first nighttime monitoring of Leatherback nesting in conjunction with the Juno Marinelife Center. Kelly Stewart and Chris Johnson headed up this program. It turned out to be very successful with 3 satellite transmitters being attached to 3 Leatherback females who came up onto the beach to nest in one night, basically around the same area on Juno beach. If you would like to follow their movements you can log onto the Leatherback Project Tracking site.
The Leatherback Monitoring Project was started using money acquired through a grant that ERM (Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management Department) successfully applied for. Volunteers tag, measure, and record data on Leatherback emergencies. They take blood samples and tag each female as she is laying her eggs. The study includes DNA sampling and nesting logistics for the imperiled Leatherback Sea Turtle. This is very important information and so far has not been studied at any length on our East Coast Atlantic Leatherback population. Certainly, it is the first time a study like this has been implemented on our beach and we were thrilled to be a part of it. Palm Beach County receives the most Leatherback nesting in the State of Florida so the study is an important one and will give us much needed information on Leatherback habits so we are better able to protect them from extinction.
Thanks so much to those volunteers from our group who were able to help with this project. We continue to look for volunteers for this curent season to help with this ongoing project.
We were notified on May 1, 2002 by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) that the Marine Turtle Grants Committee approved our application, Singer Island Sea Turtle Educational Brochures for funding for the 2002-2003 fiscal year. We are absolutely delighted with the award.
The award amount of $2000 will allow us to create, produce and distribute a tri-fold paper brochure explaining to Singer Island residents and visitors the dangers that Singer Island's sea turtles face and the steps the human population can take to promote their survival.
2001 was a fantastic nesting year for Leatherbacks on Singer Island but our lowest year for Loggerhead nesting since 1997. Your guess is as good as mine for the reason "why". 2001 is a "known down year" for Green nesting and so we were not concerned about our low numbers there. The data indicate that Green nesting is high every other year, and low every other year. So, this year should see us "up to our necks" counting Green nests and false crawls.
In 2001 our group was fortunate to have many new volunteers join us. Many came from meeting us at the Sailfish Marina during the every Thursday night Sunset Celebration. And, many came to us from the Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Rsources Management. It was a pleasure working with everyone!
We also were fortunate during 2001& 2002 to have some very interesting student volunteers from around the country and the world join us for the first time. They came to us via our website and their numbers continue to increase.
Student Interns from the University of Central Michigan joined us again in 2002, from August 10-17 and again in 2003. They were here for a summer work program with our volunteers. Since they are coming later in the season this year, they will get to see hatchlings and some nesting action!
Home
Loggerheads
Greens
Leatherbacks
Nesting Statistics
1996-2004
Leatherback Tracking Map
Join a Turtle-Watching Tour this Summer
Student Internships
Recent Research Findings
Links to Other Turtle Web Sites
Media Coverage of Our Singer Island Turtle Group
Officers & Board Members
Singer Island Turtle League
Visit Our Online Book & Video Store
Search
Sign Our Guest Book
2004 News for our Group and Area
The Hallmark Channel's "New Morning Program"
Student Interns
Sierra Club Walk
Grant Money
Kemp's Ridley Nesting
(taken from the July 8th, 2003 issue of the Palm Beach Post)
2003 News for our Group and the Area
Thursday Nights at the Sailfish Marina
We continue to set up a booth, along with the Juno Beach Marine Life Center, at the Sailfish Marina's Thursday night Sunset Celebration, Palm Beach County's premier Arts and Crafts show. We sell our tee shirts, sweat shirts, some little turtle toys, and other items and at the same time get one more chance to get the word out about our non-profit organization and of course, about the many sea turtles nesting each season on Singer Island. The tee shirts will sell for $15.00 each and there will be kids' sizes available too! They make great birthday gifts and fun gifts to bring home to family and friends from your vacation trip to our beautiful island.
Summary of 2002 News for our Group
Grant Award for our Singer Island Group
Summary of 2001 News for our Group
![[a line drawing graphic of a Loggerhead sea turtle hatchling]](weehatc2.jpg)