Sea turtle monitoring, nest evaluation & protection measures for the city of Sarasota. Year one post-construction channel maintenance dredging with beach sand placement - "White Sand Project" on Lido Key 2004.

Abstract

In order to protect the nesting habitats of marine turtles, a sand placement project began on Lido Key (Sarasota, Florida) in 2002 and was completed in 2003. Sand placed on Lido Key was dredged from the New Pass Inlet Channel. Mote Marine Laboratory's Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program was hired by the City of Sarasota to identify critical issues related to protecting marine turtle nesting habitats, marine turtles, nests, emerging hatchlings and to collect required data for evaluating potential impacts to the marine turtles of Lido Key. This 2004 report summarized STCRP's sea turtle monitoring, evaluation and protection efforts and included nesting and hatching success rates.