Authors: Sam Trail and Emily Turla
Date: November 17, 2022
In February, we introduced all our subscribers to the Turtle Transfer Program. As a reminder, the FAU Marine Lab partners with Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to provide neonate sea turtles to educational facilities for the purpose of community outreach and marine conservation. The FAU Marine Lab is the only laboratory in the State of Florida that participates in the turtle transfer program. These special ambassador turtles will leave our facility after we have collected the data we need and after they reach at least 120 grams and will stay with their new educational facility until they reach a juvenile weight before being released out into the ocean.
This season was quite special, because we got to send 3 of our healthy and growing turtles to different educational facilities, while also seeing past ambassadors (now much bigger) released into the Big Blue! We transferred little loggerhead sea turtles to the Museum of Discovery and Science (MODS), John D. MacArthur State Park, and Jensen Beach Environmental Studies Center where we know they will receive great care and will help educate the public about sea turtles and their fragile habitats.
MODS and John D. MacArthur Beach State Park picked up their new ambassadors this fall, and also brought their previous ambassadors to our neighbors at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center for a veterinary health checkup (“vet check”) and release! The loggerhead turtle from John D. MacArthur Beach State Park was affectionately named “Betty White” and originally transferred in December 2021. The loggerhead turtle from MODS, “Georgia,” was originally transferred in October 2020. Georgia even got to “meet” the ambassador turtle that would be taking her place at MODS before she was released (see picture below). After a successful vet check, these healthy one- and two-year-old turtles were released into the Gulf Stream!
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It is always a treat to watch our work come full circle. A gleeful “good luck” to our past ambassadors Georgia and Betty White now out in the open ocean, and a simple “see you later” to our three new ambassadors spread out over the state!
