The Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resource Management will spend $4,810 to print educational materials and erect signs noting the danger of lighting to turtle hatchlings. The glow of urban lights contributed to 68 percent of the instances in which hatchlings became disoriented, according to county officials.
The county also will use a $9,460 grant to hire InWater Research Group of Jensen Beach to count sea turtles in the Lake Worth Lagoon this summer. The figures will be compared to earlier counts to assess how the turtles are surviving.
Both grants will be administered through the Sea Turtle Conservancy, based in Gainesville, and the grants are paid by proceeds from sea turtle-themed vehicle license plates.
— Tim O’Meilia
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