Sea Turtle Grants Program Awards Nearly $350,000 to Research, Conservation, and Education Projects in Florida

April 30, 2018

The Sea Turtle Grants Program (STGP), funded by the sale of Florida’s Helping Sea Turtles Survive specialty license plate, recently awarded $349,943.06 to 24 different projects benefiting Florida sea turtles as part of the 2018-2019 grant funding cycle.

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 2018-2019 cycle:

• Loggerhead Marinelife Center: Impacts of the fire ant pesticide AMDRO® on reproductive success, hatchling quality, and behavior of loggerhead sea turtles
• Save-A-Turtle, Inc: Save-A-Turtle Endangered Sea Turtle Education Trailer
• University of Florida – Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research: Removal of anthropogenic debris to save sea turtles and improve their foraging habitats in Florida
• Florida Coastal Conservancy: Sea Turtle Education and Outreach Program for Gulf County, Florida
• Inwater Research Group: Characterization Of Marine Turtles On Nearshore Reefs Heavily Impacted By Humans
• Sea Turtle Conservancy: InterACT with Sea Turtles Distance Learning Program
• Inwater Research Group: Comparing demographics on Florida’s only adult green turtle foraging grounds during high and low nesting years
• Sea Turtle Preservation Society: Sea Turtle Transport Rescue-Rehabilitation-Return
• Sea Turtle Trackers, Inc: Transportation for the Changing Conditions on Shell Key Preserve
• Florida State University: Life on Loggerheads: an integrated epibiosis study to assess foraging behavior, reproductive success and habitats of Northern Gulf of Mexico loggerheads nesting at St. George Island
• University of Florida – Whitney Lab: Completion of advanced diagnostics for the Sea Turtle Hospital Suite
• Florida State University: Assessing different sea turtle nest protection measures against coyotes
• Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands Program: Providing Sea Turtle Educational Experiences for Students in Coastal, Low-Income Schools
• Florida State University: Integrative assessment of a loggerhead foraging aggregation in Crystal
  River
• Sea Turtle Conservancy: Introducing a Straw-On-Demand Program in Florida’s Coastal Restaurants
• Gulfarium C.A.R.E. Foundation: Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital
• The Parks Foundation of Miami-Dade: Turtle Translations: Conservation Awareness in a Diverse Community
• University of Central Florida: Immune gene and pathogen drivers of fibropapillomatosis in Florida’s
  juvenile green and loggerhead sea turtles: Year 2
• The Florida Aquarium: Teens for Turtles
• The Turtle Hospital: Endoscopic Equipment to Improve Diagnostics at the Turtle Hospital
• University of Central Florida: Relating Florida green turtle foraging ecology and impacts of harmful algal
  blooms
• Conservancy of Southwest Florida: Trophic Plasticity of Kemp’s Ridley Turtles in the Ten Thousand Islands:
  Long-term Trends in Diet and Stable Isotope Analyses
• Loggerhead Marinelife Center: Boater’s Voluntary Speed Reduction Zone for Sea Turtle Conservation (N.
  Palm Beach County)
• Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW): Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Tank

The sea turtle plate is the number two overall selling specialty tag in Florida, and the number one environmental specialty plate. By purchasing the sea turtle specialty license plate, Floridians are voluntarily funding important programs to save endangered sea turtles and their habitats.

To learn more about the Sea Turtle Grants Program and the “Helping Sea Turtles Survive” specialty license plate, please visit www.helpingseaturtles.org.

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