Abstract
The MORAES sea turtle nesting program began in 2021 to monitor sea turtle activity on Virginia Key, Miami, Florida. Since the organization itself is fairly new and has taken over the sea turtle nesting program for only the past two years, there is a strong need for organizational visibility and for building loggerhead (C. caretta) conservation awareness that reaches residents of Miami-Dade County. There is also a need for population and predation analysis of loggerhead data collected on Virginia Key, as 2022 was MORAES’ first year testing wire mesh screens as an anti-predation measure. The objective of this project was to create an informative ArcGIS StoryMap as an environmental outreach project, using a combination of photos, storytelling, and maps from data of the 2016-2022 nesting seasons, and to begin to identify trends in population and predation. Under FWC permitting, daily nesting surveys were conducted from May through September by MORAES staff and volunteers who collected nesting data and photos, which in turn were analyzed and transformed into easy-to-read maps and content through the StoryMap. These were then uploaded to the MORAES website in October. The 2022 nesting season produced a record number of C. caretta nests for a 6-year period, and while the number of predations also increased, the mammalian predation rate decreased from 2021 to 2022 presumably due to the vast number of nests laid. The StoryMap included information and conservation issues unique to other loggerhead nesting beaches in the Miami-Dade area– primarily the political and conservation issues arising from the city’s proposal for a homeless camp on the underdeveloped island. Future work involving C. caretta on Virginia Key may look vastly different from the 2022 nesting season, as the proposed homeless camp may break ground on Virginia Key before the 2023 nesting season, disrupting natural ecosystem processes and potentially increasing raccoon populations and light pollution. However, it is recommended that the wire screening protocol continues and expands to other areas of Virginia Key throughout future nesting seasons due to its apparent success in 2022.