Sea Turtle Grants Program Awards $445,000 to Conservation Projects in Florida

April 7, 2022

The Sea Turtle Grants Program (STGP), funded by the sale of Florida’s “Helping Sea Turtles Survive” specialty license plate, recently awarded $445,550.59 to 26 different projects benefiting Florida sea turtles as part of the 2022-2023 grant funding cycle. Since it’s inception, the Sea Turtle License Plate Grants Program has awarded more than $7 million to conservation projects.

Each year, the Sea Turtle Grants Program distributes money to coastal county governments, educational and research institutions and nonprofit groups through a competitive application process. The sea turtle specialty license plate is also the primary source of funding for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Marine Turtle Protection Program.

The following organizations received grants for their approved projects for the 2021-2022 cycle:

• Mote Marine Laboratory: Exclusion analysis and assessment of late season nests to identify breeding sex ratios and productivity of a large and growing nesting aggregation on the Gulf of Mexico
• Florida State University: First Characterization of Breeding Sex Ratio for Northern Gulf of Mexico Loggerheads
• University of Central Florida: Connecting Health and Ecology for Juvenile Sea Turtles in Eastern Central Florida (Year 2)
• Nova Eisenhower Elementary: #CleanDarkFlat: Sea Turtle Conservation for Kids
• University of Central Florida: Late-season sea turtle nesting in central and south Brevard County, Florida (Year 2)
• Sea Turtle Conservancy: Body Condition, Blood Analytes and Diet of Juvenile Green Turtles in Florida’s Big Bend
• Inwater Research Group: Information to Protect Florida’s Most Valuable and Vulnerable Sea Turtles From Vessel Strikes, Year-Two Surveys and Statewide Hot-Spot Identification
• Beach Junki: Sea Turtle Educational Signs
• Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation: Supplies for Stranding Response and Salvage on Sanibel and Captiva
• Florida State University: Understanding fine scale behavioral response of sea turtles to vessels to infer non-lethal impacts from vessel interactions
• Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation: Evaluating the effects of sand characteristics on the incubation environment for loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtles
• Sea Turtle Conservancy: Seasonal Movements of Immature Kemp’s Ridley Turtles in a Warming Gulf of Mexico
• University of Central Florida: Immunogenetics and pathogen drivers of fibropapillomatosis in stranded sea turtles
• Sea Turtle Conservancy: Sea Turtle Academy STEM: Empowering Students to Build Solutions to Sea Turtle Threats
• Mote Marine Laboratory: Upgrading the heater-chiller loop for Mote’s Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospitals
• East Coast Biologists, Inc: Proximate nutritional values and tissue assimilation of macroalgae for juvenile green turtles foraging in algal-dominated ecosystems
• Friends of the Archie Carr Refuge: Interpretive Signage across the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge
• Loggerhead Marinelife Center: Sea Turtle Stranding Response Ambulance for Loggerhead Marinelife Center’s Rehabilitation Program
• Loggerhead Marinelife Center: Investigating baseline demographics and inter-nesting habitat for a globally important loggerhead rookery (Year 3)
• The Turtle Hospital: Sea Turtle Hospital LED Surgical Lights
• Florida Atlantic University: The effects of nest temperatures on the skin microbiome of leatherback hatchlings
• Brevard Zoo: Sea Turtle Healing Center Veterinary Equipment
• The Turtle Hospital: Sea Turtle Rehabilitation X-Ray Equipment
• Friends of Gumbo Limbo: Strengthening Sea Turtle Rehabilitation: Building a Permanent Outdoor Facility to Improve Immunity, Enhance Recovery, and Capacity for Sea Turtles with Fibropapillomatosis
• Clearwater Marine Aquarium: Transport Vehicle for Clearwater Marine Aquarium Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Program
• City of Satellite Beach: Satellite Beach Crossover and Beach Park Educational Signage

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