The Sea Turtle Conservancy recently reported on the designation of the southern area of Brevard County as an Area of Critical Concern (see www.conserveturtles.org). The report confirms that the Brevard County’s southern beaches are now one of six areas in Florida with the designation. It covers a 20.5-mile section of shoreline between Melbourne Beach and Wabasso Beach, which it describes as the most important sea turtle nesting beach in the US.

The Act states that the southern barrier island of Brevard County represents one of the most fragile and endangered coastal ecosystems in North America, and that the beaches are among the most important nesting grounds for threatened and endangered sea turtles in the Western Hemisphere. The beaches there are home to the largest nesting aggregation of loggerhead sea turtles in the world and the management decisions made in the region have global impacts for the species.

The new designation requires the state, regional and local government agencies to prevent damage to the resources that the turtles rely on to survive. This includes (but is not limited to) restricting development of the shoreline, safeguarding water quality and finding nature-based solutions to restore habitat.

Elsewhere, it is possible to join volunteering projects to protect turtles in Sri Lanka, Greece, Madagascar and Costa Rica, through an organisation called The Mighty Roar Project – see www.themightyroar.com