With parks and beaches closed throughout South Florida, and the humans staying at home, other species are reveling in the quiet.
Published: April 1, 2020
By: Jennifer Jhon
Threatened and endangered sea turtles that nest on Florida beaches are enjoying several benefits from the coronavirus shutdown, said Richard WhiteCloud, the founding director and president of Sea Turtle Oversight Protection, a Broward County nonprofit dedicated to rescuing sea turtle hatchlings.
Not only is the closure reducing direct interactions between humans and turtles, it is reducing the waste and pollution that often accompanies human activity.
“Some people go to beach, have a picnic and leave their trash there. Those secondary impacts from humans just living their lives is going to diminish,” WhiteCloud said. “The natural world is going to have a little bit of a breather.”
Sea turtle nesting season is happening now, he said, which is good timing for mama turtles. “We won’t see a lot of people out on the beach in large groups having a nighttime party. We won’t see people going out to the bars and hanging out on the beach while they sober up. People will not be approaching nesting females as much to get a photo, because hopefully not as many people will be on the beach now.”
The biggest benefit for all sea life is that less trash is being left on the beach to wash into the ocean. “That was a large problem for the turtles,” WhiteCloud said. “Even 1-year-old turtles in stranding events were found to have plastic ingested in their stomachs. They’re only alive a year, but still are being killed by plastic.”
Baby turtles start hatching toward the middle of April, and the season lasts through October. “It’s going to be a long hatching season. Hopefully large groups of people out on the beach won’t add to the challenges the hatchlings face.”
For Sea Turtle Oversight Protection, which works for the state monitoring these species, the biggest obstacle presented by the shutdown is making sure they stay healthy and operational. “We are concerned with the health and safety of our staff. There will be people breaking the rules and going out on the beach [possibly interfering with the nonprofit’s work and exposing its staff to coronavirus]. That will be a concern we’re going to have to address,” WhiteCloud said.
“Keeping the doors open for our work and the crew is going to be [another] challenge,” he said.
Local nonprofits “are going to need the attention and the resources more than ever now to stay functioning, especially the mom-and-pop ones. The small nonprofits that are local within the communities, they are going to need support.”
He urged people to reach out to small, South Florida nonprofits that are struggling to keep things going, the places where their family, friends and neighbors volunteer.
“Local organizations are the ones we can connect with and have immediate results,” he said. “Figure out some way to connect and provide some resources, even if it’s just encouragement, a ‘thank you’ on their Facebook page. It goes a long way.”
Learn more about Sea Turtle Oversight Protection at SeaTurtleOP.com or follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @SeaTurtleOP.
