Related: Boca Raton: Former Gumbo Limbo employees start new sea turtle care nonprofit
By Steve Plunkett
The city of Boca Raton has a new strategy to regain permission to house sea turtles at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, but there still is no firm date for the return of the cherished reptiles, which were ordered out of the center in March.
David Anderson, Boca Raton’s sea turtle conservation coordinator, applied to the state on Oct. 4 to hold “non-releasable turtles in captivity for educational purposes.” Almost simultaneously the nonprofit Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards withdrew its application for the same activity.
Morgan and Cane, the nature center’s two longtime resident sea turtles, were transferred to other facilities on March 14, the day after Boca Raton fired its turtle rehabilitation coordinator, Whitney Crowder, and the assistant coordinator, Emily Mirowski. Crowder held the permit to care for the reptiles.
The terminations were part of an evolving city plan to move responsibility and costs for treating sick and injured turtles to the Coastal Stewards, which already was paying for a veterinarian and medical equipment at Gumbo Limbo.
The Coastal Stewards’ application to resume veterinary care was filed on Oct. 2 and is also pending with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Meanwhile, Crowder and Mirowski have started a new nonprofit, Sea Turtle Care and Conservation Specialists LLC.
“I’m working away right now,” Crowder said. “We’re trying to get a big grant.”
Anderson, who holds the FWC permit for beach-side turtle activities such as monitoring nests and staging hatchling releases for the public, said agency officials have asked him already for more information on amending his permit. He has up to 60 days to respond to their questions, and then they will have 90 days to respond to his answers.
That means no known timeline for the turtles’ return exists as of now. “It depends on how quickly FWC and I go back and forth with questions and answers,” Anderson said.
He said his long association with Gumbo Limbo — he started working part-time there in 2007 — would not speed up the process.
“FWC treats each applicant and application as if they do not know you or the facility/location in which the activity will take place,” Anderson said.
That means it is too early to plan any celebration for Morgan and Cane’s return.
“We are looking forward to once again having sea turtles in our aquariums, but will not be planning anything until after they are back,” Anderson said.
Meanwhile, he reunited with former colleagues Crowder and Mirowski on Oct. 16 when a beachgoer in Delray Beach called the FWC hotline to report a turtle floating just offshore, in apparent distress and drifting south.
Anderson’s team made several attempts to wade into the ocean and net the turtle but it remained just out of reach. Figuring it might be a long wait to see if it would get closer to shore, he called nearby sea turtle stranding permit holders for assistance, including Crowder, who has kept her permit active from her time at Gumbo Limbo.
He also called Boca Raton’s police marine unit, which has helped his team many times with water rescues.
“After an hour or so of trying to get the turtle ourselves, the marine unit showed up and I climbed aboard, easily netting the turtle thanks to the boat’s ability to get near it,” Anderson said.
The FWC told them to take the turtle to Zoo Miami’s sea turtle hospital. Crowder and her former assistant, who has married and now goes by Emily Mirowski Mercier, made the trip.
The path to getting the FWC’s blessing to restore turtle operations at Gumbo Limbo has stretched on now for more than six months. Boca Raton and the Coastal Stewards agreed on April 25 to let the nonprofit take over all responsibility, operation and financing of sea turtle rescue, rehabilitation and release efforts.
The city started to apply for the permit to hold the non-releasable turtles in June out of concern that it would take a while for the Coastal Stewards to make two key hires, a veterinarian and rehabilitation coordinator. It dropped that effort in early July.
After making the new hires, the Coastal Stewards applied for the non-releasable permit on Aug. 18, but the FWC threw up a huge roadblock on Sept. 11 with a demand that the city give the nonprofit group “ownership or control” of the nature center’s multimillion-dollar aquariums.
That led to the Stewards withdrawing its application for holding the non-releasables and applying for the veterinary permit on Oct. 2. Anderson applied to hold Morgan and Cane two days later.
On Oct. 30, FWC officials asked the Stewards for more details on how much experience veterinarian Shelby Loos and rehab coordinator Kara Portocarrero have specifically with sea turtles.
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