Florida Hawksbill Project

06/13/2024

Happy Hawksbill Day from the Florida Hawksbill Project! It's always good day when working with this remarkable species!

The Florida Hawksbill Project is authorized to handle hawksbill turtles for research purposes by both State and Federal authorities. You can learn more at https://savetheseaturtle.org/HawksbillProject/

04/05/2024

It's official; it was 20 years ago today we captured our first little hawksbill! According to the log entry, it was a sunny, cool day on the Deep Obsession - first try was at Shark Canyon with no luck, followed by success at Spearman's Barge! Today, the log has grown to nearly 300 pages that include 478 entries, and the database has us in the water for a total of 49,180 minutes! Oh how things add up! I'd like to thank everyone who has been involved through the years! Let's keep the ball rolling!

08/29/2023

I'm not much for arbitrary numbers but I suppose a milestone is a milestone! While snorkeling the reefs near Marathon, Florida Keys this weekend, our team managed to capture (much to its frustration) the 300th individual hawksbill of the study! The first was back in the spring of 2004, so it's been a while, but persistence is the key when searching for rare species. I can't thank enough all the great volunteers, dive guides, captains, students, mentors, and collaborators who have helped along the way, and of course I'm looking forward to the next 300 or so! Special thanks to the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation! www.savetheseaturtle.org

06/23/2023

So far, it appears Lyra felt like taking a vacation to the Florida Keys! After leaving Key West, she's been enjoying a free ride back north in the Gulf Stream. Since so few adult hawksbills from Florida have ever been tracked, we're learning something new every step of the way. I wonder where she's headed next! Thanks to the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation, Inwater Research Group, and Loggerhead Marinelife Center for their assistance with this project! Some have asked about the colors on the map; it's a timeline, green ones are oldest, red ones are the most recent positions.

06/13/2023

Happy Hawksbill Day!

04/07/2023

Approximately 600 attendees participated in the conference, which had 80 student presentations. UVI’s students had an exceptional showing, winning three of the eight awards, an impressive feat for a single institution. 

04/07/2023

We are so proud of our students at the University of the Virgin Islands! Winners at International Sea Turtle Symposium:
Makayla Kelso, Katie Ayres and Taylor Brunson. https://stthomassource.com/content/2023/04/06/uvi-students-win-big-at-international-sea-turtle-symposium-in-columbia/?fbclid=IwAR1in4RSMay1CiAbmVHrqUpbzc8DF9CmwaU1f2PWByeUWxa3ZC9EHhE0kso

Approximately 600 attendees participated in the conference, which had 80 student presentations. UVI’s students had an exceptional showing, winning three of the eight awards, an impressive feat for a single institution. 

06/17/2022

First 2022 trip back to Key West a success! We were able to release a young hawksbill that had been cared for by the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, and we re-captured two hawksbills we had previously identified over the last few years. These recaptures are critical to the study because they provide data concerning the survival, growth, and movements of turtles that had arrived naturally and those that had previously been in captivity and subsequently released there. In this case, one had been raised in Galveston TX by NMFS after it had stranded in the Gulf of Mexico as a small juvenile. Our team released it in 2019, and sure enough it is doing just fine, and growing quickly just like its wild counterparts.

Thanks to our FIU graduate students Analisa Duran and Liberty Boyd for their expert assistance, and our great NSTSTF Marine Research Team of Anna Bennett, Mike Osborne, and Shane Curry for a productive trip! Many thanks also to the the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation for their support of the Florida Hawksbill Project! *The Florida Hawksbill Project is authorized by State and Federal agencies to handle sea turtles for research purposes.

02/25/2022

The new aluminum sea turtle nest signs are in! Working in partnership with Sea Turtle Adventures, Inc., Friends of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, and Florida Power and Light, the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation is proud to co-sponsor a pilot project to evaluate the effectiveness of this alternative to the traditional plastic signs on nesting beaches around the State. We hope their durability gradually reduces the need to continuously replace the plastic version, thus reducing the use of single-use plastic in sea turtle/coastal conservation.

12/25/2021

Congratulations to Ms. Liberty Boyd (soon to be Dr. Boyd) and the rest of the team that included myself, Ms. Courtney Knauer and Dr. John Zardus who worked together to publish our new paper on sea turtle barnacles entitled "Evidence for Host Selectivity and Specialization by Epizoic Chelonibia Barnacles Between Hawksbill and Green Sea Turtles", now available in open-access format in the Coevolution section of the latest issue of Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Aside from being a little clingy and self-centered, barnacles are actually very complex crustaceans that have developed some fascinating relationships with their hosts, in this case two species of sea turtles. We hope our new friend Chelonibia caretta garners all the fame and fortune it deserves! Click here for all the exciting details!
https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fevo.2021.807237

06/25/2021

Although it was a bit extra-chilly on the reef, our team had success yesterday aboard the Kyalami and the great people at Jupiter Scuba Diving https://jupiterscubadiving.com. We found Hawksbill # 266, as it is known in the spreadsheet, but also now known as "Morgan", named for JSD's Erick Morgan's kids. Though it seems this young hawksbill had a run-in at some point with an unfriendly shark, the wounds were healed and the turtle was in great shape, weighing in at a healthy 50 lbs. with a 57.4 cm long shell. I'm sure we'll be running into this one again as we continue to visit Jupiter's reefs. Thanks to our team and of course the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation www.savetheseaturtle.org for supporting our work!

Of course, we have the appropriate permission from the appropriate agencies to handle hawksbill turtles for research purposes.