Abstract
The Miami-Dade County Sea Turtle Conservation Program’s (STCP) mission is “to protect all species of sea turtles that call Miami-Dade beaches, home.” This includes responding to stranded sea turtles throughout Miami-Dade waters. It was estimated that about 80-90% of strandings go unreported due to environmental aspects as well as lack of public knowledge on how to report strandings. This makes it crucial to respond to and collect all data on stranded sea turtles. Data collected can be used for conservation needs and express the current trends seen amongst sea turtles. An organized and easy-to-use database of all reported strandings that occur is a crucial tool for organizing the data for future analysis. I plan to create a relational database using sea turtle stranding data from January of 2020 to December of 2022. Microsoft Access is a universal application used to first create a database for a program. A standardized form was created to allow for easy input of all past stranding forms. The database will be used for analysis as more data is collected. ArcGIS Pro is one of many applications used to analyze data and is a great tool for visualizing data. Consistent use of the database will allow for the ability to collect a large enough sample size to highlight statistics, trends, and potential issues that result in the strandings of sea turtles. However, there were some discrepancies between paper and online forms submitted to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). FWC also updates it forms as needed which causes older forms to have less information. These issues were addressed, and a best management practice (BMP) protocol was created to help eliminate the discrepancies. The goal of iii creating a database and a BMP protocol for the STCP program will allow for future analysis of sea turtle stranding trends and give an idea of the pressing matters resulting in sea turtles stranding. The end goal is to have a better understanding of sea turtles’ conservation needs so the issues can be addressed for a chance to increase their survival and decrease their chance of stranding.