In 2011 I worked with NPS and USGS biologists during their annual sea turtle research activities in Dry Tortugas National Park, including tagging and nest monitoring. The isolated sandy keys in the middle of the Florida Straights are an ideal habitat for foraging and nesting, with dense seagrass beds and remote sandy beaches. In addition to monitoring hatchlings and tagging nesting females, the USGS team searched for turtle foraging during the day, allowing them to measure and tage juveniles, subadults, and males. which are demographics often missed in traditional beach-based studies.
-All photos of turtles taken at night were captured using ambient moonlight and/or low-power red lights to minimize disturbance to the turtles. NO flash was used at night on nesting beaches.
-All marine turtle images taken in Florida were obtained with the approval of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC MTP #11-176) under conditions not harmful to this or other turtles.
