Sea Turtle Protection

It’s the first week of sea turtle nesting season in Southwest Florida, and this year the thousands of loggerheads and greens that nest on our beaches have a new ally in nine-year-old entrepreneur Naomi Haynam. The Cape Coral pre-teen so loves sea turtles she’s making beach-themed earrings and selling them at home, online, and in parks to raise money to donate to volunteer sea turtle protection groups.

When hatchlings go the wrong way, it's almost kindly called a "disorientation." But the fact is, nearly every time they perish headed in the wrong direction, it's a preventable death sentence. Nowhere in Southwest Florida is it worse than on Fort Myers Beach. Even town officials admit it, working hard for that to change.

a federally endangered green saltwater sea turtle found alive and well in a freshwater pond water quality report bayles wgcu red tide blue green algae

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Sea Turtle Monitoring Project is now in its 40th year, making it one of the longest continuously running sea turtle monitoring programs of its kind in the country. We’ll explore the history of this sea turtle monitoring project and its challenges, successes and findings with the Conservancy’s Director of Environmental Science Kathy Worley.

A sea turtle nest found Monday on a Naples beach is the earliest one recorded since Collier County’s Sea Turtle Monitoring Program began keeping track…