Turtles, turtles, and more turtles!

With a successful sea turtle nesting season closing at the end of October, things in the Turtle-World of Long Key are anything but slow!

Since the middle of November there have been 2 dead juvenile Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) that have floated up into and around the KML marina. Another Green with fibropapilloma (fp) practically swam right up our boat ramp and was rescued along with a sub-adult Loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) that had monofilament fishing line coming out of its mouth and wrapped around the left front flipper.


Green sea turtle with several fp tumors.


Loggerhead sea turtle with fishing line entanglement and ingestion.

Both turtles were picked up by staff from The Turtle Hospital in Marathon and are receiving care for their aliments.

Winter plowing duties at KML

Well it's winter again in the Florida Keys, heralded by those cold fronts and north winds. Dealing with all of the rack accumulation in the marina, at the boat ramp, and the lagoon around our seawater intake is a constant headache.

But Dave and Bill were not to be thwarted! Engineering a Keys version of a marine plow and harnessing the muscle of our little 13' Boston Whaler, they guys pushed loads of rack and weed back out into the Bay. Frustrated snowplow operators?!?

We are happy to report that in spite of the frequent rack accumulation in the Lagoon by the Wet Lab this time of year, the water quality continues to be excellent for our seawater system.