HELP THEM HEAL

Today on World Sea Turtle Day, the Sea Turtle Preservation Society would like to make sure sea turtles rescued locally will continue to have help nearby at the Brevard Zoo’s Sea Turtle Healing Center. STPS will match your donations through Saturday, June 20, 2020, up to $10,000 to benefit the healing center. To donate, go to bit.ly/2zyArBV

The Sea Turtle Preservation Society recognizes the essential role the Brevard Zoo’s Sea Turtle Healing Center plays in sea turtle conservation in Brevard County, and during this difficult time would like to ensure that this care continues. The facility provides critical emergency and rehabilitative care to sea turtles locally, and STPS rescue efforts would be much more difficult without the nearby healing center.

“Our mission at STPS is helping sea turtles survive and having a facility in Brevard County helps us meet this mission,” said Dave Cheney, STPS transport program coordinator.

The Sea Turtle Healing Center opened in April 2014 through a partnership between the Brevard Zoo and the Sea Turtle Preservation Society, which has continued to provide annual financial support. To date, STPS has provided more than $175,000 to fund the facility’s operations.

Before the facility opened, STPS volunteers who responded to sea turtle emergencies on local beaches had to transport these sea turtles outside of Brevard County to get needed care.

The Sea Turtle Preservation Society participates in the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network. Volunteers monitor a 24/7 hotline for sea turtle emergencies, and stranding and transport teams are ready to respond to calls.

In 2019, STPS responded to 153 strandings along with getting more than 250 hatchlings and post-hatchlings to care after weather events washed them onto the beaches. In 2019, the transport team made 141 trips to get sea turtles to help.

During a weather event in 2019, STPS volunteers were making two to three trips a day to the Sea Turtle Healing Center. Without this local facility, volunteers would have had to transport these turtles a much greater distance to other facilities in Orange and Volusia counties.

For more than 30 years, the Sea Turtle Preservation Society has worked to protect sea turtles and their habitat in Brevard County. Through both public education and conservation programs, the all-volunteer not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization strives to fulfill its mission statement, which is helping sea turtles survive.

World Sea Turtle Day is celebrated on June 16, which is renowned sea turtle conservationist Archie Carr’s birthday. To learn more about World Sea Turtle Day and related activities, please visit the Sea Turtle Preservation website at seaturtlespacecoast.org or Facebook, or on our Instagram account, seaturtleps.

The matching campaign will be administered through the Brevard Zoo. To participate, go to the Sea Turtle Community Challenge page.

For media, a press release is available here.