Dr. Kirt is the esteemed former head of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, the sea turtle hospital where our sick/injured sea turtles are treated.  

"Once again FWC has shown that the organization is incapable of controlling anything other than the Marine Turtle Permit holders! The lighting in Broward County is minimally better than it was 20 years ago when FWC allowed all nests in badly lit areas to be relocated to darker sites at the loss of 30% of the transferred eggs due to excessive movement following oviposition. 

Rather than take on the beachfront municipalities for the lack of lighting ordinance enforcement, or worse; the utter lack of light of lighting ordinances in Broward they choose to restrict the Marine Turtle Permit Holders in Broward who volunteer to work long nights awaiting the emergence of sea turtle hatchlings from nests that are located in Broward beaches with continued bright beachfront lighting! 

Seriously, do you (FWC) really think that there are more volunteers on the beach than uneducated (sea turtle-wise) residents of Broward County????  STOP and similar organizations have done an outstanding job of educating and engaging people on the Broward beaches since 2007.

When I began work as Marine Turtle Permit Holder #041 in 1996, I thought the many sea turtle hatchling disorientation reports I sent to FWC would make a difference, especially the many reports that reported our hatchlings were moving south towards Broward into Deerfield Beach which had no lighting ordinance until the early 2000's but was not enforced until after Richard and Zen Whitecloud found many of my hatchlings from Boca Raton in the parking lot by the Deerfield Beach Pier.  Their activism finally caused Broward County to abandon the ridiculous nest relocation policy and soon Broward Municipalities had lighting ordinances (EVEN HOLLYWOOD).  None of this would have happened without the Whitecloud's activism as FWC had been, and continues to be, COMPLETELY IMPOTENT in lighting regulations.

I am very proud to have helped the Whiteclouds achieve all that they have earned and I am proud to be a Board Member of Sea Turtle Oversight Protection.  I have done my best to train STOP as their Scientific Advisor, and I am extremely impressed at all they accomplished with what they have learned, not just from me, but from many other permit holders and permittees.

If FWC is just to be a pawn to all the little local politicians and cave under their tiny local pressure, then maybe it is time for FWC to be abolished in favor of creation of an organization that has actual enforcement abilities and a staff in Tallahassee that actually has a spine!  FWC's problem is that the Tallahassee staff are all from the Panhandle and they have cared little for the most densely nested beaches in Florida (SouthEast Florida).

LEAVE STOP and the other volunteer organizations alone!  DO YOUR JOB AND HELP FIX THE BEACHFRONT LIGHTING!!!!"