While Boating, All Eyes On The Water!

15 hours ago
4 min read

Memorial Day Weekend is here. The boats are fueled up, the coolers are packed, and Fort Lauderdale's waterways are about to get a whole lot busier. We love that energy.

It's one of the things that makes South Florida so alive in the summer. But before you throttle up this weekend, we need to talk about who else is out there sharing the water with you.

Right now, sea turtles are in the middle of nesting season (March 1 – October 31 for Broward County). They're swimming up our coastlines, surfacing to breathe, feeding in the shallows along the Intracoastal, and laying the next generation of sea turtle eggs along the very beaches most of us live, work, and play on. And this year, we've already lost some.

What's Already Happened This Season

Just two weeks ago, four endangered leatherback sea turtles were killed by boat strikes in the Palm Beach County Intracoastal Waterway, right at the start of nesting season. Four. In a single stretch of waterway. For a species with critically low population numbers, that kind of loss doesn't just sting. It compounds.

As Dr. Heather Barron, Chief Science Officer at Loggerhead Marinelife Center, put it:

"The loss of one of those individuals is a really great loss to the species as a whole."

Each breeding adult carries decades of reproductive potential. Lose enough of them, and the species stops recovering.

This isn't unusual, unfortunately. It's a pattern.

What You Can Do This Weekend

Here's the honest truth: most boat strikes on sea turtles are preventable. According to conservationists and researchers working on this issue right now, these are the most impactful things any boater can do:

1. Slow down within the first mile and a half of shore.

This is where the turtles are. There's no mandatory speed limit in most areas, but slower speeds give turtles time to react and reduce the severity of any collision that does occur.

2. Wear polarized sunglasses and designate a spotter.

One person on board whose only job is scanning the surface ahead. Polarized lenses cut through glare and make surfacing turtles visible from a distance.

3. Avoid speeding through seagrass beds, shallow nearshore zones, and inlets.

These are prime turtle habitat. Treat them the way you'd treat a school zone.

4. Respect voluntary Sea Turtle Protection Zones.

In Palm Beach County, a protection zone runs one mile offshore from Jupiter Inlet to Boca Raton -- active through October 31. Fort Lauderdale and Broward County boaters should treat the full nearshore zone with the same caution.

5. Report injured or stranded sea turtles in Broward County immediately.

Call (954) 328-0580. Time matters. You can also reach NSU's Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program for guidance.

The Numbers Behind the Problem

The data on sea turtle boat strikes in Florida is sobering, and it's especially concentrated right here in our backyard.

Nearly 50% of all sea turtle boat strike interactions in Florida occur in South Florida from Palm Beach County down through Miami-Dade. That includes every waterway, inlet, and coastal stretch in Broward County and Fort Lauderdale.
Sea turtle vessel strikes have tripled in Florida since 1980, tracking closely with the rise in registered boats across the state.
20 to 30 percent of all stranded sea turtles in Florida show injuries consistent with a vessel strike, according to NOAA Fisheries.
In South Florida specifically, up to 60% of stranded loggerhead turtles show signs of propeller-related injuries.
More than 10,000 stranded sea turtles in Florida had vessel-related injuries between 1986 and 2014 alone. That number has only grown since.
When a turtle is struck by a boat, 90% of those with definitive boat strike injuries do not survive.

Here at home, Broward County had a record-breaking nesting season in 2023, 4,328 nests recorded across 24 miles of beach. Loggerheads, green turtles, and leatherbacks are all actively using our waters. They're out there right now. They'll be out there Memorial Day weekend.

And they have no idea your boat is coming.

Why Nesting Season Makes This Worse

Sea turtles spend most of their lives offshore. But from March through October, they converge on South Florida's nearshore waters in large numbers to nest and breed. That means the season when our waterways are most crowded with boats is the exact same season when sea turtles are most present in those same waters.

They surface to breathe every few minutes. They rest near the surface. They forage in shallow areas along seagrass beds and coral reefs. They are slow. And they can't hear your motor coming.

Boat strikes can damage a turtle's brain, spinal cord, limbs, and internal organs. Even turtles that survive a strike often suffer permanent injuries. One recent case involved "Pennywise," a 302-pound loggerhead struck by a boater off Florida's Atlantic coast, who arrived at Loggerhead Marinelife Center too large to fit a standard CT scanner. She survived. Many do not.

One Weekend Can Make a Difference

We're not asking you to stay off the water. We're asking you to slow down while you're on it.

The turtles that nest on our beaches this spring and summer will be the ones returning for decades. The ones swimming through the Intracoastal right now are the same ones that have been returning to South Florida for longer than most of us have been alive. They make this place what it is.

Help us keep them here.

Have a safe, sea-turtle-aware Memorial Day weekend. From all of us at S.T.O.P.

To learn more about how you can protect sea turtles in South Florida, visit stopseaturtle.org or follow us on social media. To report a sea turtle in distress in Broward County, call (954) 328-0580. For FWC's statewide reporting line, call 1-888-404-FWCC (3922).