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New Scholarship Funds Student Study of Sea Turtles
Three students with big ambitions to curb the dwindling sea turtle population will benefit from a new scholarship started by the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation. The foundation chose to partner with UCF in recognition of the work conducted by Kate Mansfield, Ph.D., who leads the Marine Turtle Research Group (MTRG). Mansfield is a […]
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Hurricane Dorian Washes Out More than 8,000 Sea Turtle Nests
BY ZENAIDA GONZALEZ KOTALA At least 8,000 sea turtles nests washed away from the Brevard County portion of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge earlier this month because of Hurricane Dorian, according to a University of Central Florida survey. The refuge, which extends from southern Brevard County into Indian River County, is one of the […]
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UCF Student Studies Algal Blooms Impact on Sea Turtles in Indian River Lagoon
By Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala Long before the algal blooms on Florida’s Gulf Coast sparked surprise and outrage, University of Central Florida doctoral student Chris Long was studying the effects of similar episodes on threatened green sea turtles in the Indian River Lagoon. Algae blooms regularly hit the Indian River Lagoon and were especially intense from 2011 […]
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Sea Turtle Diet Expert to Give Talk about Importance of Healthy Habitat
A University of Central Florida biologist who is an authority on what sea turtles eat will present on her work March 18 in a public seminar. The talk at the Barrier Island Center in Melbourne Beach will focus on what endangered and threatened sea turtles eat, types of habitats they depend upon in Florida, and […]
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Knight Life: The UCF Turtle Team
It’s 9:30 p.m., the sun is down, and your shift is about to start. You put on your long pants, long-sleeved shirt, bug jacket and fanny pack with your nightly turtle kit. Out on the beach in Brevard County, in the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, you’re starting your search for nesting female sea turtles. […]
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Real Science
The Biology Summer Field Institute isn’t a field trip into the woods. For the week of July 17, rising high school juniors and seniors become real scientists. Led by Jennifer Elliott, Assistant Director of the UCF Arboretum, students were broken up into four groups: wetlands health assessment, forest ecology, vegetation monitoring, and gopher tortoise studies. […]
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A Mission to Save Sea Turtles
Story by Zenaida Kotala Sea turtles have been a major component of keeping the world’s oceans healthy for more than 100 million years. With many of the species being endangered or threatened, University of Central Florida researchers are continuing to do grueling research to help expand our knowledge of these creatures. June 16 was World […]
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Satellites Show Florida Beaches Becoming Darker, and That’s Good for Sea Turtles
Newly published research that started as a high school science project confirms that the density of sea turtle nests on Florida beaches is reduced where artificial lights along the coast deter nesting females. But the data also show that the network of sea turtle-friendly lighting ordinances along Florida’s coast seems to be working. “It’s a […]
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Presenting Sea Turtles in Peru
CENTRAL FLORIDA FUTURE – Isabelle D’Antonio, Contributing Writer In February 2016, hundreds of sea turtle enthusiasts and researchers from around the world will gather in Lima, Peru, for the 36th annual International Sea Turtle Symposium to present their research and discuss conservation efforts. This year, junior Abigail Hudak, UCF biology major, will be one of […]
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Record Year for UCF Marine Turtle Research Group
Green sea turtles have had their highs and their lows. Before being commercially harvested for hundreds of years, green sea turtles used to be a typical sight in the Atlantic, but now they are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in multiple locations across the globe. Even with being one of the first species to have federal regulations protecting them, green […]
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Sea Turtle Myth Busted
It turns out sea turtles, even at a tender 6-18 months of age, are very active swimmers. They don’t just passively drift in ocean currents as researchers once thought. NOAA and University of Central Florida researchers say it’s an important new clue in the sea turtle “lost years” mystery. Where exactly turtles travel in their first years of life, […]
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More Sea Turtles Come to Florida, but Reasons are Mysterious
This year’s early count of sea turtles nesting on Florida beaches is encouraging, though there are many unknowns in the numbers. Welcome to the mysterious world of sea turtles, which spend much of their life far from Florida’s beaches encountering fishing boats, oil spills, plastic trash and any number of other perils. Nesting by loggerhead, […]
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Romantic Strolls with Sea Turtles
The College of Sciences wants to take COS faculty and potential donors on a long, moonlit walk on the beach. To learn about sea turtles of course! This summer, the College of Sciences has organized a series of Turtle Walks to promote the college’s excellent sea turtle research program and cultivate interest in the program. […]
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Sea Turtle Symposium Spotlights New Research From UCF Professors and Students
A legend in sea turtle research and conservation and the first biologist to collect direct data from the turtles’ “lost years” will speak at the 34th annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation in New Orleans this week. UCF emeritus professor Llewellyn Ehrhart and assistant professor Kate Mansfield will speak at the symposium along with 14 […]
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Sea Turtles “Lost Years” Mystery Starts to Unravel
Small satellite-tracking devices attached to sea turtles swimming off Florida’s coast have delivered first-of-its-kind data that could help unlock the mystery of what endangered turtles do during the “lost years.” The “lost years” refers to the time after turtles hatch and head to sea where they remain for many years before returning to near-shore waters […]
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UCF Marine Turtle Program Attracts & Inspires
The UCF Marine Turtle Research Program attracts some of the best biology students from across the nation thanks to the groundbreaking work of its founder and the hands-on experience students get at the most important turtle nesting beach in North America. After getting the UCF experience, students go on to work in the field with […]
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Enjoy Sun, Sand and Sea Turtles in Summer Biology Internship
The College of Sciences’ biology major is looking for students to participate in a field research internship. Interns will log hundreds of hours over a four month period (May 5 to Aug. 17, 2014) locating, tagging and cataloging nesting sea turtles and their nests of eggs. The nests will be found along a 29-mile stretch […]
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Endangered Green Sea Turtles Make a Comeback in Florida
MELBOURNE BEACH, Fla. — When Chris Long thinks back on a summer spent digging up holes in the beach, it’s a job he says he “wouldn’t trade … for anything.” The 26-year-old University of Central Florida Ph.D. candidate spent months looking for green turtle nests, studying the comeback of a species that — at one […]