21 July 2008

ATV Theft

Those of you who live in the Pensacola Beach area may know we patrol four separate sections of beach searching for sea turtle nests, hatching nests or disoriented hatchlings and adults. As each stretch is about 7 miles, we patrol on ATV. Disoriented adults and hatchlings can die from exposure, predation or other means if we can't get to them in a timely manner. We can ill afford to lose a single animal in this critical population...



One of our ATVs, a green 2006 Honda, was stolen from our storage POD in the Park East lot sometime Sunday afternoon/night or very early Monday morning. Since we patrol starting at about 0530, it would have been VERY early.



The ATV looks a lot like the one above, with a "Q" sticker near the gas tank. If you see it, or know anything about it, please call Gulf Breeze dispatch. This is an important tool in our efforts to protect the threatened and endangered sea turtles that grace our shores. Please help us continue to help these graceful creatures in their struggle for survival.

This theft represents a $5000 loss for the National Park Service, and for the sea turtles. Who could do something so heartless?

Thanks for your help!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What gives? That's pretty twisted that someone would steal a ATV from the park service.

Turtle Girl said...

Yeah, I agree... and it's the one for our volunteers to use to check the beach in the morning for new sea turtle nests. Not a very nice thing to do.

On the positive side, we do have our first hatchlings! I'm headed to one of our beaches tonight to watch three nests that are full of scratching little turtles, trying to reach the air above their sandy nests :)

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