About Sea Turtle Oversight Protection

Permit # 192 is the first of its kind in Broward county, Florida - as it is designated for the sole purpose to rescue and release disoriented sea turtle hatchlings in Broward County, Florida and to document the disorientation events for local and state law enforcement officials.

Our primary focus of this program is un bias compliance to environmental protection laws that have not been enforced in Broward county. Our dedicated staff will spend thousands of man hours documenting lighting violations that result in the disorientation and death of nesting sea turtle adults and hatchlings. We work with local municipalities to correct their inappropriate administrative actions if they have failed to enforce federal and state policies to protect the sea turtles from lighting. We file our reports with local code enforcement officials and request case information to ensure that they follow through with statutory enforcement at least to the minimum state and federal standards. For decades the main goal of the municipalities - was to pursue the over development of the coastal system.

Our service to the sea turtles is not just for the present time conservation - it is also for the future generations that will inherit the earth from us. Even those who do not live on the coastal systems where the sea turtles nest- have a stake in the survival of this majestic living fossil. They have survived all that has come their way in the 200,000,000 (+) years they have inhabited the earth--(except the impacts of humans! ) extinction is forever!

This is your chance to get involved. We have several levels of volunteering that can accommodate just about any age of person that wishes to help us in our endeavor to secure the nesting habitat for future sea turtles and people alike. We embrace all entities to join us as public observers or public outreach advocates of the sea turtles. We have had participants ranging from: students (college, k-12) , boy scouts & girl scouts , corporate office groups, military, police, scientists, doctors, engineers, artists, business owners, lawyers, tourists, families, journalists, and the list goes on..  

Our volunteer staff is an all-public based group of everyday people that conduct nightly hatchling rescue operations on Broward county beaches during sea turtle nesting season. Our permitted staff members are all trained in the process of hatchling mortality management.  A process designed for the hatchling rescue program by our founding director - under the marine turtle conservation guidelines of the state of Florida. Our program's founder and director, Richard Whitecloud, is permitted by the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission to train personnel and conduct rescue operations for disoriented hatchlings caused by unlawful urban lighting and to document disorientation events for code compliance officers.

Unfortunately, we cannot recover every hatchling and watch every nest. This is why we also work to gain lighting compliance through oversight of municipal administrators. We educate the public by hosting sea turtle nesting habitat awareness and lighting workshops - without lighting compliance enforcement, our program would not be the success that it is. In just the 3 years that our program has been active, we have reduced hatchling mortality by saving thousands and thousands of sea turtle hatchlings from certain death and educated thousands of people and local municipal administrators.

We aim to provide a solution - to balance the scales of making money vs. Environment.    Making money is almost always the first priority when it comes to governance of the people and environment is the last. It is ironic that most means of making money are made from utilizing environmental resources. We can't have one without the other!