This dead loggerhead ingested more than 100 pieces of plastic it mistook for food. Photo provided by Gumbo Limbo
By Margie Plunkett
The tiny sea turtle, the size of the palm of your hand, had died after being washed back to shore this nesting season.
Sea turtle eggs were uncovered by rough seas that followed Hurricane Dorian and other tropical systems this fall. Photo provided by Gumbo Limbo Nature Center
By Rich Pollack
Despite the impacts of Hurricane Dorian and more recent high tides and rough
By Steve Plunkett
Work to rebuild the hugely popular observation tower at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, which has been missing in action since early 2015, should begin in September.
The new tower will be constructed with composite wood decking, rath
Gordon Gilbert stands between the trunks of a gumbo limbo tree at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, which he helped found in 1984 in Boca Raton. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Steve Plunkett
In the next several weeks, Gordon J. Gilbert, the
ABOVE: An orange-barred sulphur butterfly drinks nectar from a firebush. BELOW: Strangler figs line the path of the Ashley Trail. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley
It’s easy to find the Ashley Trail from the parking l
Caitlin Bovery, sea turtle rehabilitation assistant coordinator, records a video of Gumbo Limbo senior aquarist Keith Herman
and manager Leanne Welch as they dump plastic bottles into the center’s near-shore reef aquarium.
The bottles, 70 pounds’ wor
A least tern sits on eggs on the beach in Boca Raton.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission workers and Gumbo Limbo staff
make signs for a perimeter fence to deter beachgoers from walking on the nest.
The dappled color of the eggs is a go
Tuana Yazici (right), a Saint Andrew’s Upper School student, made a presentation to more than 50 kindergartners at Saint Andrew’s. She spoke about protecting sea turtles from plastic waste and explained how sea turtles are at great risk of being harm
Five-oh splashes in the surf at Red Reef Park before Caitlin Bovery (left in blue shirt) repositioned
the recovered sea turtle deeper in the water so it could swim away. Bovery said juvenile turtles are not used
to moving on sand. A boat propeller ma
Locally produced balm sweetens
sea turtles’ recovery at Gumbo Limbo
Caitlin Bovery, sea turtle rehabilitation assistant coordinator, rubs dark, raw honey on Blitzen,
an ill adult loggerhead turtle, at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.
The honey speeds heal
Ben Hicks uses his photos to raise awareness of sea turtles.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
A photo by Hicks showing a green sea turtle coming to the surface to breathe.
By Rich Pollack
Ben Hicks knows when sea turtles don’t mind him swimming besid
Under the branches of a trio of Gumbo Limbo trees, a family takes advantage of the recently reopened boardwalk.
The project cost $630,810, paid for by the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District. The boardwalk
closed in February 2015 when engineer
By Steve Plunkett
The long-awaited construction of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s boardwalk loop may begin by the middle of May.
The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District awarded a contract for $581,680 to low-bidder Close Construction LLC of
Whitney Crowder and David Anderson check on Bruce’s wound. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Sallie James
A critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle that nearly became a shark’s lunch is the newest star at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, where he
By Steve Plunkett
Disabled people will be able to enjoy the boardwalk at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center when it reopens next spring.
The boardwalk, which has been closed for repairs since February, will be getting a ramp to make the structure compli
By Margie Plunkett
Boca Raton counted 1,041 turtle nests along its five miles of beach as nesting season nears its close, bouncing back from 949 last year. But researchers saw an unusually high number of unhatched eggs.
“Our hatch success i
By Steve Plunkett
After nearly four years, it’s time to talk about the future of Ocean Strand again.
“Sometime this fiscal year we need to have that discussion,” Commissioner Robert Rollins told fellow commissioners at the Greater Boca Raton Be
Boardwalk repairs at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center will take longer than expected, though no one knows yet how much longer.
A team from consultant Miller Legg, which is handling the $1.75 million project, did a quick review of the site in mid-
By Steve Plunkett
The pipes that bring saltwater from the ocean to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s fish viewing tanks need $2 million of repairs — and fast.
“Those poor fish — you just want to breathe for them. You want to give CPR because they’re
When sea turtles hatch in the dark, they make their way to the ocean
like these three little loggerheads.
File Photo
A cooler with instructions for leaving hatchlings
sits near the front door of the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal
