Sea to Shore Alliance News
December, 2009- Vol 1, Issue 1 | |
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Make your tax-deductible year-end donation today!
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| Dear Friends of Sea to Shore (S2S), |
It's been such a very exciting and productive first year! Even through this difficult and challenging year, Sea to Shore Alliance emerged healthy and enthusiastic about our future. We are rapidly building and strengthening our mission to conserve threatened aquatic species through scientific excellence and education. We are tremendously grateful to our supporters and agency partners.
This past year S2S has focused on manatee conservation initiatives in Florida, Belize and Cuba. In addition, we are developing a novel approach for wildlife managers to address problems caused by lighting of sea turtle nesting beaches.
We are particularly pleased to kick off our first newsletter to keep S2S friends, colleagues and supporters informed about progress, initiatives and conservation needs.
Sincerely,
Dr. James "Buddy" Powell
Executive Director
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| Manatee Rehabilitation Partnership (MRP) |
 Each year many manatees are injured or become sick and must be rescued and treated at critical care facilities such as SeaWorld, Lowry Park Zoo or Miami Seaquarium. Exposure to red tide, cold stress, and disease are all natural problems that can affect manatees. Man-made threats include boat strikes, crushing by flood gates or locks, and entanglement in or ingestion of fishing gear. Sea to Shore Alliance is a member of the Manatee Rehabilitation Partnership (MRP), a unique group of private, non-governmental and governmental agencies who pool resources to rehabilitate manatees and release them back into the wild.
Once a rehabilitated manatee is medically cleared to be released, S2S is responsible for tracking and monitoring them in the wild. By doing so, we help to ensure their well-being and the information we collect is used to improve protocols and pre-release training of manatees to improve their chances of survival in the wild. S2S is using cutting edge technology for tracking the movements and recording the behavior of these released manatees. During the 2008-09 winter season, five manatees, Baby Coral, CC, Rita, Bock and Amber were released into the wild. S2S staff track the MRP manatees on a weekly basis. You can follow the movements and stay updated on the progress of the MRP released manatees by visiting www.wildtracks.org or subscribe to our MRP manatee update list by sending an email to mrp@sea2shore.org. |
| Assessing the Manatee Population in Palm Beach County |
In February 2009, S2S began working with the Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resources Management to assess the distribution and abundance of manatees in Palm Beach County, Florida. In addition to the manatee surveys, S2S provides valuable data on changes in monthly abundance and identifies human-related interactions that may be cause for concern. S2S is also responsible for assessing sea turtle abundance, plotting dolphin sightings and identifying activities that may cause environmental problems. The County has not assessed their manatee population since the 1990s. Our study will provide the most up-to-date information on manatee use of Palm Beach County's waters and help the county, state and federal officials develop or revise actions aimed at strengthening their protection.
Manatees following a surfer off Lake Worth Beach (photo courtesy of Kerry Baker)
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| Manatees in Alabama |
S2S has partnered with Dr. Ruth Carmichael and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and to support their manatee research program in Mobile Bay, Ala. S2S is assisting Dr. Carmichael and her team by providing many years of manatee research experience as DISL builds the first manatee research initiative in Alabama. In September 2009, together with SeaWorld of Florida, S2S biologists traveled to Alabama and guided a manatee tagging expedition that resulted in two manatees being radio tagged. The data from the study will be used to obtain a better understanding of manatee use of the Mobile Bay and critical habitat. Information generated from the study will aid federal and state authorities to develop conservation actions in the region.
Photo courtesy of Dauphin Island Sea Lab |
| Manatee Photo-Identification Catalogue |
 Photographs of individual manatees are used to maintain a statewide manatee identification computerized database called the MIPS "Manatee Individual Photo-Identification System". The MIPS was developed by US Geological Survey (USGS) in the 1980s to provide data to assess the recovery of manatee populations. S2S is working with USGS to maintain this long term database in several areas around the state. We know from the database that some of the manatees Buddy Powell first photographed in Crystal River during his studies in the 1970s still use the river and have been sighted as far away as Alabama and Cuba. |
| Belize Manatee Conservation |
 In 1997, Buddy Powell, Bob Bonde of USGS and Nicole Auil of the Belize Coastal Zone Management Authority who is now an Associate Scientist of S2S, began the Belize manatee conservation project. Belize has the highest known density of Antillean manatees, a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, in the world. Unfortunately, because of rapidly increasing coastal development, human related manatee deaths are rising quickly. Poaching, once the major threat to manatees in Belize, has been replaced by boat kills and destruction of habitat as the most major concerns for the survival of the species. S2S scientists and collaborators provide the data, expertise and scientific exchange that are used by the Belize government to establish sanctuaries, speed zones and other actions that help ensure the survival of manatees in this remarkable country.
Jamal Galves of S2S and Belize Coastal Zone Management Authority holds Twiggy after she is rescued near
Huesner Island in Belize (Photo courtesy of Sea Sport)
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| Cuban Manatee Conservation |
Very little is known about manatees in Cuba though it has some of the most extensive and best manatee habitat in the Caribbean. In 2001, Dr. Buddy Powell began a long-term initiative to develop and strengthen a manatee research and conservation program in Cuba. Working in collaboration with Wildlife Trust (WT), the University of Havana's Center for Marine Investigations, the Cuban Enterprise for Flora and Fauna and under a license from the US Treasury Department, Buddy has facilitated surveys in various sections of the island and helped to facilitate manatee research and conservation initiatives. In 2004 through Wildlife Trust (WT) and again in 2009, in cooperation with WT, S2S conducted a marine mammal necropsy workshop to provide expertise that will help Cuban biologists to identify causes of marine mammal and manatee mortality. The results have shown that a large number of manatee deaths are occurring due to drowning in trawling and netting activities. The Cuban government is using these data to adjust or eliminate netting in areas where it may be a threat to manatees. Buddy is supervising a Cuban Masters of Science student at the University of Havana, Annmari Alvarez Aleman, who is working on an in-depth manatee study on the Isle of Youth off the SW coast of Cuba. In 1979, a Florida manatee with a young calf, first photographed by Buddy in Crystal River in 1979, was sighted and photographed by Annmari at a power plant east of Havana. This is the first record of a Florida manatee traveling to Cuba and suggests that there may be some population exchange between the two countries.
photo - Eddie Garcia and Anmari Alvarez Aleman collecting environmental data on the San Pedro River, Isle of Youth.
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| Improving Baby Sea Turtle Survival |
 When baby sea turtles emerge from their nests, they can easily become disoriented by lights on the beach. Instead of crawling toward the ocean, they move toward land and can become entrapped in beach furniture, killed by predators or die of desiccation when the sun rises. S2S, with a grant from the SeaWorld Busch Garden Conservation Fund, is developing a novel methodology to assist wildlife managers with reducing sea turtle mortality caused by lighting of turtle nesting beaches. S2S biologists are flying at night along the coast with a special light meter and video camera system to record relative light levels. The data will allow managers to identify illumination "hotspots" and coastal glow problem areas near real-time. The data can be used to reduce beach lighting in critical areas and increase the survival of baby sea turtles as they emerge from their nests.
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| Animal Watch Program |
Dredging project in Tampa Bay (Photo courtesy of Jay Gorzelany)
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University of Florida Sea to Shore Alliance Student Chapter - Jennifer L. McGee, PhD Student
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 As the executive director of Sea to Shore Alliance, James 'Buddy' Powell has encouraged students to pursue their passion for research, conservation, and education. As S2S grows, so do the opportunities for student involvement. Therefore, we are creating a chapter specifically targeted at students interested in aquatic species and the goals of the alliance. The Sea to Shore Alliance Student Chapter aims to provide resources/venues for students to pursue further career training, international collaborations and contacts, funding opportunities, and to increase awareness of global conservation issues. The chapter will provide research updates on students from around the world currently collaborating with Sea to Shore.
Students from the University of Florida-College of Veterinary Medicine have been involved in Buddy's research for years, many of which have joined him for the manatee health assessments in Belize. Ambitious students have sought out funding sources and even provided personal resources to support their travel, sample collection, and analysis. Beyond research, students have also become actively involved with the local Belizean communities as well as assisting in the training of manatee health assessment techniques to those joining the project; both from Belize as well as visiting researchers, biologist, and students from around the globe.
Currently, we are in the process of creating a student section on the Sea to Shore website. Here you will be able to view pictures of students in the field, learn more about their research projects, access funding and research related resources, and communicate with other students. For more information please contact Jennifer McGee (McGeeJ@vetmed.ufl.edu).
Photo - Jenny Meegan, DVM; Jennifer McGee (PhD candidate) and Maggie Kellogg, PhD from UF VetMed program after a long hard day tagging and conducting health assessments on Belize manatees, 2008
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Gifts for Good - Letter from Marcus Daly
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On Saturday, December 5, my friend, Logan Friedman, and I, Marcus Daly, supported Sea to Shore Alliance at our school's alternative gift fair, Gifts for Good. Logan and I are sixth graders at St. Patrick's Episcopal Day School in Washington D.C. and have been contributing at Gifts for Good since fourth grade. In preparation, Logan and I met to make the signs for the booth and recite what our cause supported. We got to the fair about an hour early to set up, and we learned how to use the manatee tracker, loaned to us by Dr. Powell. We attached the tracking device to a stuffed animal manatee and hid it, so that visitors to our booth could try to track and locate a manatee for themselves. Many people came to our booth, and with all the donations, we made $1,223 to support Sea to Shore Alliance. Many people even wanted to help so much, that they volunteered on the spot to help out with the booth. - Marcus Daly
Photo - Marcus Daly and Logan Friedman
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Greetings from Jessica Koelsch
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 Sea to Shore Alliance Supporters:
Greetings! If we have not met yet, I'm Sea to Shore Alliance's newest Conservation Biologist. With almost a decade of experience doing manatee field research, and another decade doing science-based conservation work on sea turtles, right whales, dolphins, as well as manatees, I am thrilled to be joining the S2S Team!
In addition to my passion for marine life, I've also spent the past two decades involved in various forms of competitive athletics. Most recently, I've ventured into the world of Triathlon. In 2009, I was selected to compete in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships triathlon in Clearwater, FL! And instead of just racing for my own personal goals, I decided to race for Sea to Shore Alliance, and race for S2S goals as well!
I had two main goals: Finish in under 5 hours, and raise funds for Sea to Shore Alliance. I had done the "half ironman distance" in two previous races: once in 5:09; the other in 5:26. I knew I had to have the "race of my life" to break 5 hours.
Much to my delight, I DID have the race of my life!! Not only did I break my 5 hour goal; I shattered it! I finished the 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run in 4 hours, 44 minutes, and 52 seconds! Over 15 minutes faster than I had hoped. What is even more amazing is that this time was good enough to propel me to 11th place! Out of 75 women in my age group that qualified at one of thirty events during the year, I finished 11th! I asked people to pinch me because it did not seem real!
In addition to shattering my personal goal, I also made huge strides towards my S2S goal, raising nearly $3,500! I wish to thank everyone who contributed to the sponsor challenge, sent me words of encouragement, and was cheering for me.
Next up in 2010: My first full Ironman Race: Ironman Louisville, August 2010. My goals: Raise $10,000 and finish in under 11 hours. Your support is welcome!! - Jessica Koelsch
Photo - Jessica crossing the finish line in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships triathlon in Clearwater, FL
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 From all of us at Sea to Shore Alliance, we wish you and your families Health and Happiness this Holiday Season and Prosperity in the New Year!
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Sea to Shore Alliance is a 501(c)3 Not for Profit Organization
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