Sea Turtle Patrol and Rescue with Brett Lozowski

[00:00:00] Hi, my name is Brett Lozowski. I am the investment manager with Life Planning Partners and my Unexpected Hobby is Sea Turtle Patrol and Rescue.

[00:00:11] Welcome to Unexpected Hobbies of Financial Advisors, the podcast where we interview fellow financial advisors about their pursuits and pastimes beyond their professional persona, some of which may be surprising to their colleagues and clients.

[00:00:24] We're interested in what makes them tick and how their unexpected hobbies might or might not relate to their everyday lives.

[00:00:32] Here's our discussion with this week's guest.

[00:00:38] Welcome to the Unexpected Hobbies of Financial Advisors podcast.

[00:00:41] I'm Brian Wright with Fiduciary CFO.

[00:00:44] And as always, to my right, your left, if you're watching on any of the many visual mediums that you can watch, Joshua Walker, fellow financial advisor.

[00:00:55] I'm coming out of the left side of your earbuds. Here I am.

[00:00:57] Yes, right on. I'm pretty excited about this.

[00:01:01] Yeah, high hopes.

[00:01:02] Yeah, this hobby was referred from a past interview.

[00:01:08] Past guest referral, one of our favorites.

[00:01:10] Yes, yes. And it should not surprise us that this is also a marine life sort of hobby.

[00:01:19] So we're pretty excited.

[00:01:22] Brett, thank you for coming on to tell us about your unexpected hobby, Turtle Patrol and Rescue.

[00:01:32] And Sea Turtle Patrol and Rescue? Is that the mouthful?

[00:01:36] Sea Turtle Patrol and Rescue.

[00:01:37] Sea Turtle Patrol and Rescue.

[00:01:38] St. Par.

[00:01:39] Yeah, thank you for having me on the podcast.

[00:01:43] It's good to have you.

[00:01:44] So tell us, I know I've got a whole bunch of questions about the turtles themselves, but tell us, first off, your take on what it is that you do and how you got into it.

[00:01:53] Yeah, that's a good question.

[00:01:55] So if you've ever been to the beach, usually in the summertime and you see four wooden stakes in the sand and some tape, that's what Sea Turtle Patrol does.

[00:02:05] So what we do is we wake up before sunrise and we patrol the beach in the morning for sea turtle tracks.

[00:02:11] And then what we do is we find the nest and stake them off.

[00:02:14] So that's in a nutshell what we do.

[00:02:18] So we operate in the summertime and we're basically trying to make sure the nests are identified for people that are on the beach that they know not to go in those areas so that they can have a successful nest and hatch.

[00:02:31] Okay, okay.

[00:02:32] And that you said summertime.

[00:02:33] Is there a seasonal aspect to the breeding window or is it all year round or how does it work for them?

[00:02:39] Yeah.

[00:02:40] So there's a nesting season.

[00:02:42] It starts in the beginning of May and it runs all the way to late October.

[00:02:46] So it's kind of a long season.

[00:02:48] It is.

[00:02:49] Yeah.

[00:02:49] And is that for all turtle kind in general or is there a specific species that needs extra protection or anybody that waddles onto the beach and lays an egg, you're going to stake off their ground?

[00:03:02] Yeah.

[00:03:02] So in Florida, that's our nesting season.

[00:03:06] And that's typically what it runs year round for, you know, around the Caribbean area too.

[00:03:12] But yeah, that's our window in Florida.

[00:03:17] Okay.

[00:03:17] What part of Florida are you located?

[00:03:19] It's in Jacksonville, Florida.

[00:03:21] Okay.

[00:03:22] Okay.

[00:03:22] And so not the warmest part of Florida.

[00:03:24] So in early May, it's going to be chilly out there.

[00:03:26] You're going to have to, I mean, by Florida standards, bundle up to get your feet wet out there.

[00:03:30] That's got to be somewhat unpleasant on a dark morning.

[00:03:33] So the good thing is here, it starts getting warm around March and it really stays warm.

[00:03:39] It's not too hot yet, but May is still very, very warm here.

[00:03:43] Even by South Florida standards.

[00:03:46] Okay.

[00:03:46] I guess you're not in the water.

[00:03:48] Being in the water would be unpleasant, but okay.

[00:03:50] Yeah.

[00:03:50] All right.

[00:03:51] Yeah.

[00:03:52] And so how do you, is it like, this is a terrible comparison, but we know there's a date on the calendar.

[00:03:59] Deer season is opening.

[00:04:00] Do you have a similar season that, that breeding season, it's May the 1st or it's Mother's Day?

[00:04:04] Or is there somebody whose job is to keep their eye open that, okay, the turtles are coming.

[00:04:08] Let's, let's get out there.

[00:04:10] Yeah.

[00:04:10] So I'm in part of a organization called Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol.

[00:04:14] And so we're a group of volunteers of us, probably about a hundred of us in Jacksonville.

[00:04:20] And so we all get together before the season starts.

[00:04:25] There's a group or, there's a organizer who runs the group of volunteers in the field supervisor role.

[00:04:32] So what she does is she assigns us what zones we're going to patrol, what days we're going to patrol.

[00:04:37] And then, you know, May 1st comes, that's day one.

[00:04:40] You know, whoever's day it is in your zone, you get out and go.

[00:04:42] So, and so we do that all the way till the end of October.

[00:04:46] How big is the zone?

[00:04:48] How much ground do you have to cover?

[00:04:49] So it's about two miles one way.

[00:04:52] So it ends up being about four miles total because you do your trek and then you walk back.

[00:04:58] So.

[00:04:59] And how hard is it to spot the prints?

[00:05:01] How big are these creatures and how much of a track do they leave behind?

[00:05:06] Yeah, they're surprised.

[00:05:08] They're pretty big.

[00:05:09] These are, these are mama turtles that are, you know, they're, they've been, they've been around for a long time.

[00:05:15] They've gotten pretty big and big enough to lay eggs.

[00:05:19] They're pretty big and they're hard.

[00:05:21] They're pretty hard to miss in my opinion.

[00:05:23] Yeah, obviously if you're walking on the beach and you're, you know, you're on your phone or something, you can walk past them.

[00:05:28] But a comparison is they kind of look like tire tracks from like an ATV and so there's a pretty distinct pattern in them where you can tell, okay, that's turtle flippers and you can kind of follow their journey up the beach.

[00:05:43] When they walk, is it just the flippers or do their tummies drag as well?

[00:05:49] Yeah, so they drag.

[00:05:51] So it's kind of like a.

[00:05:52] That helps then.

[00:05:53] Like that and dragging is the best way to describe it.

[00:05:57] Okay.

[00:05:57] Okay.

[00:05:58] And do you ever see the turtles themselves or have they already come done their business and gone by the time you're out there?

[00:06:04] So I actually got the opportunity one time to see the mom leaving the beach and that was pretty often experienced.

[00:06:12] They usually go in the middle of the night and way in the middle of the night.

[00:06:17] It's about a two hour process for them to lay their eggs and then, and then make it back out to the ocean.

[00:06:23] So I actually just caught the mom leaving at sunrise.

[00:06:28] I got an incredible photo of it and it was amazing experience, but it's very hard to catch.

[00:06:34] Sure.

[00:06:34] Sure.

[00:06:35] And there's a digging and covering process as well, right?

[00:06:39] How deep are the eggs?

[00:06:40] Because if they were obvious, you wouldn't have to take them off because hopefully everybody would know to avoid them.

[00:06:45] So how deep down are they?

[00:06:46] How much digging do they have to do?

[00:06:48] Yeah.

[00:06:48] So it depends on the, actually it's funny.

[00:06:51] It depends on the turtle, different species, different depths of how deep they want to dig.

[00:06:56] But usually the loggerheads we get, they're about two feet deep.

[00:07:00] So it's, so it's about the best way to compare it is if you stuck your arm basically into the sand, it's going to cover a lot of your arm.

[00:07:09] And they do that with their flippers.

[00:07:11] The sand is abrasive stuff.

[00:07:13] That's got to be rough.

[00:07:15] That's rough work.

[00:07:17] Yeah.

[00:07:18] It's not a easy process for them.

[00:07:20] Um, it's why it takes two hours.

[00:07:22] They'll, they'll spend about 45 minutes to an hour just carving up sand, just digging up every speck of sand they, they can get the eggs in as deep as possible to protect them.

[00:07:35] So they say on average, they move about a hundred pounds of sand in an hour.

[00:07:40] Okay.

[00:07:41] But they're not so deep that they're already just protected anyway from the sheer depth of the human activity up above.

[00:07:50] Right.

[00:07:51] They're kind of in a sweet spot where if they were too deep, they wouldn't be able to get out.

[00:07:55] But, um, they're not deep enough.

[00:07:57] These babies have to get out.

[00:07:58] Yeah.

[00:07:59] That's, that's the other component.

[00:08:01] Yeah.

[00:08:01] So it's, they're not too deep to where they can't get out, but they're deep enough to kind of protect them from that predation, if you say.

[00:08:09] Sure.

[00:08:10] Sure.

[00:08:11] And like, who, who are the predators that the turtles do this to protect themselves originally not from humans?

[00:08:17] Is it, I was initially going to say coyotes.

[00:08:21] Are coyotes even an option down there?

[00:08:23] Owls?

[00:08:23] What's the problem?

[00:08:24] Snakes.

[00:08:25] Who's going to do these things?

[00:08:26] So, um, coyotes, foxes will go and dig in the nest.

[00:08:31] They're, they're very good about knowing where they are for whatever instinct they have.

[00:08:35] Believe it or not, crabs are one of the worst.

[00:08:38] They'll actually, you know, cause crabs will build their own tunnels and burrow into the sand.

[00:08:43] And they're, they, um, they love turtle eggs, unfortunately.

[00:08:47] Well, who doesn't?

[00:08:49] And so once you stake off the ground, how, how long will those eggs just, I'm not sure if gestate is the right word.

[00:08:56] How long will they brew before they, how long does those stakes have to protect the plot?

[00:09:00] Yeah.

[00:09:01] So it's around a two month window.

[00:09:04] It runs about, they're all different, but it's about 55 to 65 days is the sweet spot.

[00:09:09] A few run longer, a few are shorter, but that's usually the window.

[00:09:15] Is that a species variation or just eggs going to do their own thing?

[00:09:19] And what, what causes the difference?

[00:09:22] Yeah.

[00:09:23] It's, it's just, every nest is different.

[00:09:27] It's, there's not really difference on species.

[00:09:29] They all run about the same window, or at least the ones we get in Florida.

[00:09:34] Is this the sort of thing that happens worldwide?

[00:09:37] Is there, is there a Southern hemisphere equivalent where the seasons are flipped,

[00:09:41] where they have to patrol their beaches November to April or whatever?

[00:09:47] Yeah.

[00:09:48] So the, you know, every, every area with warm water, basically it's the tropic climate for

[00:09:55] turtles.

[00:09:56] So it's, you know, any place in the world could have the same effect.

[00:09:59] And, and I was seeing the summer, Southern hemisphere where winter summers flip, it would,

[00:10:04] it would be their opposite.

[00:10:06] The other thing too, is they don't go too far South because, you know, like past, you say

[00:10:12] the Carolina area, you know, that water gets pretty cold.

[00:10:15] You kind of don't get as many nests as you do in the tropical areas.

[00:10:19] Okay.

[00:10:20] Are, are turtles warm blooded or cold blooded?

[00:10:24] I know.

[00:10:24] I don't, I don't know, but I know they prefer that subtropical, tropical climate.

[00:10:29] So some of the California, like the warm climates.

[00:10:33] Yeah.

[00:10:34] I guess if they were going to live in the water, well, I guess I shouldn't speculate.

[00:10:36] I have no idea.

[00:10:38] No, any turtles.

[00:10:39] I'll have them on and ask.

[00:10:40] I've asked you about 15 questions about the turtles.

[00:10:43] What about you?

[00:10:43] How did you get into this and how long have you done it?

[00:10:46] Yeah.

[00:10:46] So I actually have only done it for a year, but it's been a very action packed year.

[00:10:50] So how I got started was inspired by a really good family trip we had to the Virgin Islands.

[00:10:56] And we got to snorkel with sea turtles and they were everywhere.

[00:11:00] And it was such an incredible experience.

[00:11:03] And, you know, when I was reflecting on the trip, you know, you have to, I was just thinking,

[00:11:07] I was like, wow, the creatures are endangered.

[00:11:09] And if you think, you know, trajectory, you know, there's generations behind us that have

[00:11:15] potential and never have this experience.

[00:11:17] So right after that trip, I started looking at ways I can get involved.

[00:11:21] And so I found the organization, Beach of Sea Turtle Patrol out here in Jacksonville.

[00:11:27] And it actually, I actually applied for three years before they let me become a volunteer.

[00:11:34] Oh.

[00:11:35] And it's basically, it's a very competitive process.

[00:11:39] And they have a, usually they have about one or two openings and they have a lot of volunteers

[00:11:45] that want to join the organization.

[00:11:47] So it took me three years to finally get through.

[00:11:52] And so this was my first year doing it.

[00:11:55] Well, I didn't realize we were going to need to congratulate you, but yeah, congratulations

[00:11:58] on that feather in your cap.

[00:12:00] What do they look for in a volunteer?

[00:12:01] What makes a good one?

[00:12:03] Yeah.

[00:12:03] The biggest thing is flexibility.

[00:12:05] So, you know, I, my day was, I was patrolling the beach every Monday morning.

[00:12:11] So it was a good start to the week.

[00:12:13] I'm waking up at 5 a.m. before sunrise, get out and walk my four miles.

[00:12:18] And, and then the other thing they look for is flexibility.

[00:12:21] So we're a big organization.

[00:12:23] We have a lot of volunteers, but you know, there's, we're patrolling in a seven month window

[00:12:30] ish.

[00:12:30] So, you know, the things are going to come up where people want to take vacations.

[00:12:34] They want to, they want to, you know, just, they have a lot of older people.

[00:12:38] And sometimes they, you know, they have things come up that, I mean, one person I patrolled

[00:12:44] with had back problems and she was out for, for eight weeks.

[00:12:48] So they look for a lot of flexibility and people that can pick up additional shifts, if you will,

[00:12:54] throughout the year.

[00:12:55] And, and four miles on sand, that, that's not nothing that you got to, that's a fair,

[00:13:01] it's a good workout to start the day.

[00:13:02] You got to bathe after doing that.

[00:13:04] I do have to shower before going into work.

[00:13:08] Okay.

[00:13:09] Special footwear for that?

[00:13:10] Are you just wearing sneakers or you go barefoot or what?

[00:13:13] Yeah, I'm a, I'm the type of guy where I'll usually go barefoot.

[00:13:17] The good thing is it's, it's more on the Atlantic coast.

[00:13:20] We get more of that harder sand.

[00:13:21] So it's easier to walk on.

[00:13:23] You kind of avoid some shelves and stuff, but I don't know.

[00:13:26] I'm, I'm kind of a beach bomb myself.

[00:13:28] So I like going barefoot.

[00:13:30] Okay.

[00:13:31] Okay.

[00:13:31] So you're out there barefoot and you come across the ATV tracks and you recognize,

[00:13:36] okay, this is, this is what, this is what I'm here for.

[00:13:39] How many, how many stakes are you carrying?

[00:13:41] We have to head out with a, a wagon of 200 stakes in case you find 50 nests or what are

[00:13:48] you dragging along with you?

[00:13:49] Or vampires.

[00:13:50] Yeah.

[00:13:51] Always prepared.

[00:13:53] Yeah.

[00:13:53] So luckily I don't have to carry all the equipment.

[00:13:56] We have two buggies that basically divide the beach in half.

[00:14:01] So they have all the supplies on them.

[00:14:03] So when we find the nest, they'll radio into them and say, Hey, we, we found the tracks and

[00:14:09] nest.

[00:14:09] So they'll come out and then they have all the supplies.

[00:14:12] So then we can get to work and stake off the nest.

[00:14:15] So it's an organized effort.

[00:14:16] You're, you're the spotter and the caller.

[00:14:18] And then somebody else comes in with the ground support to make it happen.

[00:14:22] Yeah.

[00:14:22] So we're, that's a good way to, we're basically foot patrol.

[00:14:25] And then, and then we stand by until we find something.

[00:14:29] And when the buggy comes, we all get to work.

[00:14:33] Are there in this organization, is anybody doing it for a living professionally?

[00:14:38] The, the, the manager or the, whoever's driving the buggy, or is it all strictly volunteer

[00:14:42] driven?

[00:14:43] It's all volunteers.

[00:14:44] Wow.

[00:14:44] Okay.

[00:14:45] Okay.

[00:14:46] But somebody is making it happen and somebody is making sure the buggy's got fuel and sourcing

[00:14:51] stakes.

[00:14:52] Is this the sort of thing that, I mean, I guess you're a nonprofit and you're collecting

[00:14:55] donations from Lowe's and Home Depot to get your stakes and the other things that you need?

[00:15:00] Yeah.

[00:15:01] So we're a nonprofit.

[00:15:01] So we rely on, you know, basically donations through the community to fund every, you know,

[00:15:07] everything we need, like you said, goes into the, the buggies nest.

[00:15:12] Now I'm getting the stakes for the nest and tape, everything.

[00:15:15] We try to reuse as much material as we can, but we do rely heavily on donations.

[00:15:20] Sure.

[00:15:21] And the organization that you're part of, is it a part of Jacksonville or all of Jacksonville

[00:15:26] or the entire Eastern seaboard?

[00:15:28] How, what's your organization's domain?

[00:15:31] Yeah.

[00:15:31] So it's based, it's strictly our County, which is basically Jacksonville as a whole.

[00:15:36] So.

[00:15:37] Okay.

[00:15:38] And it's sort of a port and there's sort of a river.

[00:15:40] There's, there's a lot of coastline that you have there.

[00:15:43] How much of it is eligible beach land or is it only the part that's facing the ocean where

[00:15:47] the turtles are anyway?

[00:15:48] Because I guess it'd be extra, a whole lot of work like a salmon to swim upstream to

[00:15:52] lay your eggs.

[00:15:54] Yeah.

[00:15:54] So luckily they decide, the turtles have decided they only do that, that beach coastline that's

[00:16:01] don't do the inside the river.

[00:16:03] So it makes our job a little easier.

[00:16:05] Okay.

[00:16:06] But there's still a hundred of you and two mile zones.

[00:16:10] So, I mean, I'm not going to straight multiply, but that's many dozens of miles of coastline

[00:16:15] that's got to get covered for the sake of these creatures.

[00:16:19] Yeah.

[00:16:19] And to your point on the volunteers, it's, we all, we don't all have to do it every single

[00:16:24] day.

[00:16:25] Luckily we get assigned one minimum day that we have to do.

[00:16:28] And then on top of that, we're basically a group.

[00:16:31] So yeah, we're basically just a group of volunteers on standby.

[00:16:35] If you know, someone's out and someone could fill in.

[00:16:38] Okay.

[00:16:39] How large is the crew?

[00:16:40] How many people are out there in, in, in the morning?

[00:16:42] And you say, you know, before the sun comes up, because this, this is something you're

[00:16:45] doing at 4am and you're done by 6am or is this like a 4am until noon?

[00:16:52] Yeah.

[00:16:53] So we have to time it with, we can't be out too early because if you're out too early,

[00:16:58] you can't see anything, you know, kind of getting right where you're getting to where

[00:17:02] the sun's not quite above the horizon yet.

[00:17:05] So we're on the summer months where it's, where, you know, the sunrise is really early.

[00:17:10] We're out there at about 5am and for good thing is we're down around seven.

[00:17:15] So, okay.

[00:17:16] Yeah.

[00:17:16] But, you know, as you get later in the year and the sun's coming up later, our start time

[00:17:21] has to adjust based off that.

[00:17:23] How significant are the tides in your part of the country is, and does it have an impact

[00:17:27] on where on the beach the turtles go?

[00:17:31] Yeah.

[00:17:31] The tides play a pretty big factor, not only in where the turtles end up, like what part

[00:17:38] of the beach they're going to end up on.

[00:17:39] It actually plays a part in the nest, actually making, basically having a successful hatchery.

[00:17:46] So, so a lot of times the turtle comes up at high tide, you know, that's, that means

[00:17:52] the beach is, there's a shorter amount of beach that's basically available.

[00:17:57] So it's not uncommon to see turtles on high tide go lay a nest that's deep in the sand dunes.

[00:18:03] Um, on lower tide, that basically means there's a longer beach.

[00:18:08] So what happens is they might actually lay a nest closer to the shore or they, or they

[00:18:15] could still make the long trek all the way to the dune.

[00:18:18] It just adds to their journey.

[00:18:20] Um, tides play a really big factor in the nest because if the turtle lays the nest, that's

[00:18:26] too, basically, you might not look like it's too close to the ocean, but the tides vary.

[00:18:30] So if, if it's too close to the ocean and you know, we get the next week, we get a really

[00:18:36] bad high tide schedule.

[00:18:38] They call it a king tide and the water starts coming over to nest that actually causes a

[00:18:45] lot of eggs not to hatch.

[00:18:46] So it plays a really big factor in the whole process.

[00:18:49] And then if it's the nest gets created at high tide and the critters hatch when it's at

[00:18:57] low tide, you could be a hundred yards from, that's a long way to go.

[00:19:00] Are they, are they, the babies vulnerable during that part?

[00:19:03] Yeah, they're very vulnerable.

[00:19:05] Um, that's, it just adds to their journey and makes it even harder.

[00:19:10] Um, you know, they come out at night, so a lot of times they're avoiding the birds, but

[00:19:15] stuff, but there's still other predators out there, crabs and other things that will try

[00:19:20] to pick them off.

[00:19:21] The longer that journey is for them to make it to the ocean, that kind of lowers their

[00:19:26] survival rate.

[00:19:28] And does your organization play a part in protecting them at that stage too, or is it strictly,

[00:19:33] we're going to let you let the nest survive, but then the rest is on you guys?

[00:19:37] Yeah, that's, um, unfortunately that's the part we can't play affecting because we don't

[00:19:43] know when they're going to come up.

[00:19:44] It's basically, we know they come up typically in a 55 to 65 day window from when they're

[00:19:52] weighed in the ground, but you never know what day they're going to just all decide they're

[00:19:56] going to come up and make their trek.

[00:19:58] So we don't, we don't monitor the nest overnight.

[00:20:02] We basically can see the tracks in the morning, like, wow, that's all the hatchlings made it

[00:20:06] out to sea because we see all their little small tracks.

[00:20:10] Okay.

[00:20:11] Okay.

[00:20:11] How many, how many eggs are typically in a, in a nest?

[00:20:14] Is it a clutch?

[00:20:15] I'm thinking clutch.

[00:20:16] Is that the right word?

[00:20:17] Clutch.

[00:20:17] Yes.

[00:20:17] Vocabulary.

[00:20:18] You got it.

[00:20:19] Yeah.

[00:20:19] So we, it really varies, but I mean, I've seen them as high as 180 eggs in a clutch and

[00:20:26] the, they say a typical falls in the 120 to 150.

[00:20:30] Some of them less, some of them a lot more.

[00:20:33] From one mother.

[00:20:34] From one mom.

[00:20:36] Wow.

[00:20:36] So she's been working on creating those internally and then she drags herself up and relieves herself

[00:20:42] of 120 or even 180 eggs.

[00:20:44] That's what percentage of her body mass is that?

[00:20:47] And how, is that an every year thing or does she take more than a year to recover from that?

[00:20:52] So in the body, I don't know what percentage it would be, but in the knees are like 200 pound

[00:20:58] turtles sometimes that are making it up.

[00:21:00] So they're, they're more than capable of carrying the weight.

[00:21:04] There's actually an interesting study that we actually partnered with the University of Georgia

[00:21:11] and we, there's a professor up there that does a pretty interesting study.

[00:21:15] What he found is there's oftentimes there could be a one mama turtle could be laying multiple

[00:21:21] nests in the same region during the same nesting season.

[00:21:26] So as part of the study, he found that one turtle actually laid seven nests during that seven

[00:21:32] month window.

[00:21:34] Oh my.

[00:21:36] Yeah.

[00:21:37] Okay.

[00:21:39] Okay.

[00:21:40] Wow.

[00:21:40] All right.

[00:21:41] And is there statistics on survival rates of the nests?

[00:21:47] I mean, there's a lot, I'm thinking about a Drake equation.

[00:21:48] There's a lot of things that can go wrong.

[00:21:50] One mother is going to have how many viable offspring in a cycle or is that?

[00:21:56] Yes.

[00:21:57] So this is the unfortunate part of biology when an animal lays a lot of offspring usually means

[00:22:05] the survival rates low to make it to adulthood.

[00:22:09] Yeah.

[00:22:09] So usually we say if one or two make it to adulthood from the, from the whole clutch,

[00:22:17] that's a successful nest.

[00:22:18] That's replacement rate.

[00:22:20] Okay.

[00:22:20] Yeah.

[00:22:20] All right.

[00:22:21] How, and then extending the life cycle further, a critter that's come out of the nest, makes

[00:22:27] it to the water, survives.

[00:22:28] How many years need to go by before she's returning as a mom?

[00:22:33] So it depends on the species, but tell them it's about 25 before they'll get to the point

[00:22:39] where they're ready to start reproducing and creating offspring.

[00:22:45] And what's the lifespan?

[00:22:47] Yeah.

[00:22:47] So they live a long time.

[00:22:49] It could be in a while, they could be 70, a hundred years.

[00:22:54] Obviously they, no predation or anything happens, but they live a very long time.

[00:23:00] Okay.

[00:23:01] Okay.

[00:23:02] Turtle, sea turtle, tortoise, terrapin.

[00:23:05] Help me understand the difference between all of these creatures that, that when I was

[00:23:09] a three-year-old looking at an animal book, they all sort of looked the same, but I know

[00:23:12] they're not, but I don't know how they're not.

[00:23:14] So educate me.

[00:23:16] Yeah.

[00:23:17] It's basically where they live, land and fresh water versus out to sea is the huge difference.

[00:23:24] I think the sea turtles, I mean, at least the ones I've seen in a while, they get a lot

[00:23:28] bigger than land turtles.

[00:23:30] I know the land turtles, most of the species tend to be a little smaller, but I've seen,

[00:23:36] I've just seen them from being offshore, from fishing and other things, you know, 300,

[00:23:41] 400 pound sea turtles.

[00:23:42] So they get a little bigger in their environment of where they live.

[00:23:46] I think it's a little different.

[00:23:48] Okay.

[00:23:49] So this is, it sounds so far in the interview that you have discussed the turtle patrol piece

[00:23:57] of it.

[00:23:58] Where does the rescue come in?

[00:24:00] Yeah, that's a good question.

[00:24:02] So what tends to happen is, so there's an organization called the Florida Wildlife Commission.

[00:24:09] And so they receive distress calls from when, say a turtle gets hit by a boat or, and someone's

[00:24:16] found it, or a turtle's washed up on the beach.

[00:24:19] Well, that's a, that's a kind of like a government agency.

[00:24:23] And they actually rely on us to volunteers.

[00:24:26] We have permits to them that handle sea turtles.

[00:24:29] They rely on us to actually respond to the distress calls.

[00:24:33] So as part of rescue, you know, someone might've found a baby hatchling when it, it went, it

[00:24:39] might've thought it made it out to sea, but then, you know, high tides might came in and

[00:24:43] pushed it back in.

[00:24:44] So it's basically washed up and stranded on the beach.

[00:24:48] That's our group is we respond to those distress calls and we'll go in, we'll go out and basically

[00:24:54] assess the situation and see if we need to take the turtle to like an animal hospital

[00:24:58] or anything like that.

[00:25:01] And is there a designated animal hospital that you go to that you're contracted with that'll

[00:25:07] take a turtle on their doorstep all of a sudden?

[00:25:11] Yeah.

[00:25:11] So I've actually had to go to both of them in the past, but there's one in Jekyll Island,

[00:25:17] Georgia, which is about an hour and a half, two hours north here.

[00:25:21] And then there's, there's a second one that's about an hour and a half ish south of us.

[00:25:25] Uh, it's actually a university of Florida Marine biology lab.

[00:25:30] Um, um, either one of them will end up taking either, either at had fillings or juvenile turtles

[00:25:36] too.

[00:25:36] What's the biggest specimen that you could move successfully?

[00:25:40] Cause I don't think you're going to pick up a 400 pounder and move it with much hope of

[00:25:45] success.

[00:25:46] So that's actually happened in the past where, um, not for me personally, I wasn't part of

[00:25:52] this, but years ago, one of our, um, field supervisors had to bring a big leatherback turtle

[00:25:58] and he was hundreds of pounds.

[00:26:00] So he had a pickup truck and he had to drive it up to Georgia and drop it off at the Marine

[00:26:05] hospital.

[00:26:06] So, um, personally I've actually brought a, not too long ago, I brought a 50 pound turtle

[00:26:11] from Jacksonville up to Georgia to the hospital.

[00:26:15] So I had to load it back up in the car and go.

[00:26:17] And what's the right way to move a turtle?

[00:26:18] You just, uh, grab it by the shell and hoist or do they not appreciate that?

[00:26:23] Well, that's the only way to pick them up.

[00:26:25] So we just wrap them in a towel and try to kind of cradle them and get them into the car.

[00:26:31] But if it's big, well, most of the time we get the hatchling.

[00:26:34] So they're about four centimeters.

[00:26:36] So you can just pick them up.

[00:26:37] Oh, okay.

[00:26:39] And do they have any natural defenses?

[00:26:40] Cause here in Indiana, we're told leave the turtles alone cause they'll take your finger

[00:26:43] off.

[00:26:44] And is it the same sort of thing that I guess the bigger they are, the bigger the limb

[00:26:48] they can remove from you.

[00:26:49] If they had a mind to, they could, um, the big ones, especially they could, if they felt

[00:26:54] threatened, but usually when we've had them, they, they're pretty peaceful and, and they,

[00:27:01] it's almost a weird feeling.

[00:27:02] They understand when they're washed up or if they're in distress that we're helping.

[00:27:06] It's, I don't know how to describe the feeling, but it's, they could, but they usually are

[00:27:12] very, um, peaceful.

[00:27:14] These humans are wrapping me in a towel and throwing me in a truck.

[00:27:17] Everything's fine.

[00:27:19] Everything's fine.

[00:27:20] Okay.

[00:27:21] I think we're going to, we're going to rename this, this episode road tripping with turtles.

[00:27:25] Road tripping with turtles.

[00:27:27] Just imagine going down, you know, the interstate and looking over in a big leatherback that's

[00:27:32] hanging out in the back of a pickup truck.

[00:27:33] All right.

[00:27:36] So you do this with, I mean, it sounds like you're out there sort of by yourself.

[00:27:40] Is it you in nature?

[00:27:41] You have headphones, podcasts, music.

[00:27:43] How do you like to experience the, um, the hours as they go by?

[00:27:48] Yeah.

[00:27:48] So most of the time I've done, you know, usually you have a partner, but you know, just certain

[00:27:54] circumstances came up where I switched volunteer zones and I actually did most of the season

[00:27:59] by myself.

[00:28:00] So, you know, it's out in the morning, I just put on some country music and just whatever's

[00:28:05] on and just walk down the beach and do my, do my morning patrol.

[00:28:10] Okay.

[00:28:11] And you've got a radio then, so you gotta occasionally communicate with the buggy people that,

[00:28:15] Hey, I found one.

[00:28:16] And so on a given walk, is it, is it possible that you'll do your four miles and, and strike

[00:28:22] empty or what's, what do you, what's normal?

[00:28:26] Yeah.

[00:28:26] So it's, it's funny in the beginning, probably the first seven or eight walks I did found

[00:28:33] nothing.

[00:28:33] So that was pretty, that's pretty common.

[00:28:35] But, you know, then there's a kind of a window in July or kind of like late June to July into

[00:28:43] the beginning of August where it gets hotter.

[00:28:46] It's kind of like the peak of the season.

[00:28:47] So you start seeing a lot more and then late in the season, it kind of dies off again.

[00:28:53] So it's kind of like a, you know, bell curve.

[00:28:57] Bell curve.

[00:28:58] Yeah.

[00:28:58] That's the word I was looking for.

[00:28:59] Yeah.

[00:29:00] So it's, yeah, it's, you know, there's a lot of times when you see nothing and even

[00:29:07] when it's in peak and sometimes it's, you weren't expecting to see nothing.

[00:29:11] It's, you see something.

[00:29:12] So you never know.

[00:29:14] Okay.

[00:29:14] So we're recording this the week before Christmas.

[00:29:17] And so my arithmetic is right.

[00:29:19] Then if you patrol into October, you might see the occasional nest in October and then 55

[00:29:24] to 60 days.

[00:29:25] Is there, are there still turtlings, baby turtles, hatchlings even this week trying to get to

[00:29:31] the water or is it, is it way too late now?

[00:29:33] So at this point, I just, cause I know all the nests are hatched.

[00:29:38] So they're all, there's no more nest in our, like our North Florida region.

[00:29:42] Okay.

[00:29:42] Even the zone South of us, but we actually, there actually was a hatching about three weeks ago

[00:29:48] from a County South of us.

[00:29:50] Okay.

[00:29:51] So is this the sort of thing like, like, uh, you can go on, on YouTube and see an eagles

[00:29:56] nest with eggs and you're watching the eggs do nothing for weeks.

[00:29:59] And all of a sudden you have baby eagles.

[00:30:00] Is it the same thing with the turtles or is it too much in the dark to, to, to film them

[00:30:04] and stream the, the turtles are hatching?

[00:30:07] Yeah.

[00:30:08] So some organizations actually do it for, um, kind of like a research purposes.

[00:30:14] They have a special permit and you can use like special infrared lighting, not to, to

[00:30:20] not mess up the incubation and nesting process.

[00:30:24] Right.

[00:30:25] Yeah.

[00:30:25] Yeah.

[00:30:25] Yeah.

[00:30:26] But there are actually some organizations and I think they actually post them on YouTube.

[00:30:30] You can check it out.

[00:30:32] Okay.

[00:30:33] Okay.

[00:30:33] That's cool.

[00:30:35] So if you do this sometimes alone, sometimes with a buddy, do you get to form a sort of

[00:30:41] community association?

[00:30:42] Are there events where you actually get to interact with the people that are doing this

[00:30:46] or, or will you never, are there half the people that you'll never get to meet?

[00:30:50] Yeah.

[00:30:50] So in my one year, I've probably met about say 30 to 35% of the organization.

[00:30:57] It's okay.

[00:30:57] But we do have outings together where, you know, at the end of the year, we all have

[00:31:02] a big party, you know, celebrate our success, but it's, yeah.

[00:31:06] And there's certain events throughout the year where we might, we might be at a, one of our

[00:31:13] members got recognized for an award at a, at a beaches.

[00:31:17] There's a beach city council meeting.

[00:31:19] So a lot of us went to that.

[00:31:21] So there's, there's, there's events throughout the year where we can all meet up.

[00:31:24] Okay.

[00:31:25] Good.

[00:31:25] Good.

[00:31:26] Cool.

[00:31:26] And what's the training and onboarding process like that you had to go through to become a

[00:31:31] volunteer?

[00:31:32] Yeah.

[00:31:33] So we, there's an education process up front that the Florida wildlife commission has that

[00:31:38] we have to basically go through.

[00:31:40] And then we do field training with our field supervisors.

[00:31:44] So they, so they walk us through, you know, everything we should expect on the patrol.

[00:31:50] And then there's also workshops that the Florida wildlife commission puts on for volunteers that

[00:31:55] we attend.

[00:31:56] So we get a lot of training up front before we're ready to go.

[00:32:00] Okay.

[00:32:00] And you went through three years of application to, to get into this and how did, you know,

[00:32:05] there's always a gap between expectation and reality.

[00:32:07] So what's your assessment of, of your first year?

[00:32:09] And has it measured up to the, that trip to the Virgin islands that you, that you longed

[00:32:13] for?

[00:32:13] Yeah.

[00:32:14] Yeah.

[00:32:14] I don't think anything can compare to being right there and swimming with them, but it

[00:32:18] actually, I would say pretty dang impressive what I was able to do with like, you know,

[00:32:25] mountain hatchlings.

[00:32:26] I've been able to see, just make it out to the ocean.

[00:32:29] I'm seeing the mama turtle, make it back.

[00:32:32] And just being part of a rescue, being able to pick up, you know, turtles and bring them

[00:32:37] to the hospital and save them.

[00:32:39] It's, um, it's actually, I don't know what I was expecting when I joined this, but I think

[00:32:43] it's exceeded my expectation.

[00:32:45] Okay.

[00:32:46] And now having been done in a year, is it the sort of thing you see yourself doing indefinitely

[00:32:51] and working your way up into a supervisor and beyond?

[00:32:54] Yes, definitely.

[00:32:55] I'm trying to stay involved in this is basically as long as I can.

[00:32:58] And okay, cool.

[00:33:00] Good.

[00:33:00] Good.

[00:33:01] A lot of the guests that we have on find themselves part of a community and then there

[00:33:05] are sometimes ends up being two way traffic.

[00:33:08] You get people that you know in your day job involved in patrol and then you meet people

[00:33:12] and they discover your financial advisor and they end up interested in your day job

[00:33:17] as an advisor.

[00:33:18] Has there been any of that?

[00:33:19] Or is that, uh, I guess it's only many years.

[00:33:21] Is it too soon for there to be any overlapping like that?

[00:33:24] No, I've made some good friends in the community doing this.

[00:33:27] Um, there hasn't been any overlap yet in terms of, um, partners becoming clients, but I actually

[00:33:35] have had clients that have just retired and they've found out that I do turtle patrol and

[00:33:40] I've showed them photos and they're like, huh, I just retired.

[00:33:42] I really want to do that.

[00:33:43] And so I think that's been interesting.

[00:33:46] Some of our clients might become patrol members.

[00:33:50] Uh, the way you described the work did seem like it would skew towards the early retiree

[00:33:55] demographic.

[00:33:56] Is that, is that correct in mind?

[00:33:58] I'm thinking because you're not that.

[00:34:00] I am not that.

[00:34:02] Yes.

[00:34:02] So I, um, unfortunately I have to work a little longer, but soon, soon.

[00:34:07] Yeah.

[00:34:08] It's funny.

[00:34:08] It's, I say I'm probably the youngest person in sea turtle patrol.

[00:34:12] And I, from what I've met, I'm the youngest person, but it skews heavily to that sixties,

[00:34:19] seventies or eight.

[00:34:20] Are there people that have been doing it 30, 40 years?

[00:34:22] How long has it been around?

[00:34:24] Um, it's been around for, for almost 50 years, I think now, but, um, at least our group, I

[00:34:30] mean, every chapter is a good way to describe it.

[00:34:33] Um, I mean, it's been around since sea turtles were basically listed as endangered, but I

[00:34:39] mean, there's people that have been doing it for 35 plus years in the organization.

[00:34:44] Okay.

[00:34:44] Okay.

[00:34:45] So I'm going to take this interview in a different direction.

[00:34:47] And this question may end up on the cutting room floor.

[00:34:49] It's going to be completely honest.

[00:34:51] It happens.

[00:34:51] But, uh, it's a young guy, you know, good job.

[00:34:56] So, uh, are you, are you, are you a single guy?

[00:34:58] He had a significant other, like, what's the story here?

[00:35:03] No, no, no.

[00:35:04] Follow me here.

[00:35:05] So, so, so good.

[00:35:06] That's the question.

[00:35:07] So you single guy, what's, what's the story here and the relationship status?

[00:35:10] Yeah, I am single as of recently.

[00:35:13] Okay.

[00:35:13] This seems like a fantastic, like, like the dating app, like you just, just lead with

[00:35:22] that.

[00:35:22] Just, I'm on the turtle patrol.

[00:35:24] I think that's a mic drop.

[00:35:26] Just like turtle patrol.

[00:35:27] I think you're right.

[00:35:28] Yeah.

[00:35:28] There's a lot of it because you care about nature and you're out and about and active and

[00:35:32] devoting time to something that you care about.

[00:35:34] You could do this with a significant other or a parent or a child.

[00:35:39] We could have staff meetings on the beach.

[00:35:41] Yeah.

[00:35:42] Yeah.

[00:35:43] But a dating app bio, you gotta have turtle, turtle patrol on there.

[00:35:46] That's a really funny story I have this year.

[00:35:49] And it's actually where this kind of intertwined was.

[00:35:52] I actually was doing a rescue one time and I picked up a turtle about 15 minutes from my

[00:35:58] house.

[00:35:58] I had a 50 pound turtle with me.

[00:36:01] So I was, I did, we basically, the turtle was big enough to where we didn't know where

[00:36:07] we're going to transport it to which hospital.

[00:36:10] So the Florida Wildlife Commission agent I was working with said, said, Hey, just hang

[00:36:16] tight with the turtle while I figure out what hospital can take this turtle.

[00:36:19] Cause it had been hit by a boat.

[00:36:20] And so I come up, I go to my house and my next door neighbor sees me outside with a 50 pound

[00:36:28] turtle in my hand and I'm walking in my house.

[00:36:30] So his girlfriend runs out of the house and sees it and goes like, Oh my God.

[00:36:35] And she's like taking videos and filming me.

[00:36:37] And so after she sends me all the videos, she goes, you know what you should do?

[00:36:42] You should put this on a dating profile and make it your like front or second photo.

[00:36:48] I said, everyone would swipe on you.

[00:36:50] And I was like, that is so funny.

[00:36:52] You just said that because that happened about three or four weeks ago.

[00:36:57] I'm telling you, you're onto something here.

[00:37:01] You won't be single.

[00:37:02] That's all I'm saying.

[00:37:06] We're dealing with facts here.

[00:37:08] No, it's a very laudable hobby.

[00:37:11] So this, congrats.

[00:37:13] All right.

[00:37:14] So what, what, back on track here, what lessons have you, or do you think you've

[00:37:18] might be likely to learn that you've learned from just a season of doing this that might

[00:37:22] be applicable to, to your day job?

[00:37:24] If any, if it's not too soon.

[00:37:26] Yeah, it's, I think what I've taken away from this, maybe not as much from my day-to-day

[00:37:33] day job, but just more of just career and life advice.

[00:37:36] And, you know, I just think about, you know, turtles, they go through this, this incredible

[00:37:40] journey of, you know, they've come out to the beach, they lay their eggs and, you know,

[00:37:45] hatchlings hatching and they have their journey out to sea.

[00:37:49] And, you know, I think a lot of us, we get caught up in the day-to-day of where, where

[00:37:53] we want to be.

[00:37:54] And we kind of focus on that, that end goal, but we kind of don't take a moment to sit

[00:37:58] back and enjoy the journey along the way.

[00:38:01] So that's kind of my, my lesson I've taken away is just, you know, when I'm working on

[00:38:05] something, just kind of like a turtle, just, you know, they move slow, just sit back

[00:38:10] and enjoy the journey and take a moment to be grateful for where you are.

[00:38:15] And watch out for crabs.

[00:38:17] Yes.

[00:38:20] All right.

[00:38:21] All right.

[00:38:21] Okay.

[00:38:22] Any special memories from the first year, I guess, dragging around a 50 pound turtle into

[00:38:29] your own kitchen could qualify any other special memories that you think that I'm going to remember

[00:38:33] this and tell my kids about someday?

[00:38:36] Yeah.

[00:38:38] Yeah.

[00:38:38] Grabbing the turtle, the 50 pound turtle and having it in my living room for a while.

[00:38:44] I was calling work and calling work and saying, Hey, surprise, I got a 50 pound turtle.

[00:38:50] Can I dip out work early and go to the hospital with them?

[00:38:54] But luckily I work with a great team and they were understanding.

[00:38:59] They said, Oh, it's three o'clock on a Friday.

[00:39:00] Go to go, go, go make sure he's okay.

[00:39:02] So, um, the other one is one time I actually, I found a hatchling.

[00:39:08] It is a cool story.

[00:39:09] I found a hatchling after all of its, his brothers and sisters made it out to the sea.

[00:39:14] He was stuck on his back outside the nest laying down, flipping up sand.

[00:39:19] And so, you know, I found them before sunrise and there was people on the beach.

[00:39:24] So I was shocked that, you know, a dog or a fox or a crab or no one got them.

[00:39:30] And he was just probably there for hours.

[00:39:33] So I got to, you know, make sure he got rescued.

[00:39:37] And one of the trainers actually took him in and held him overnight.

[00:39:41] Um, cause he wasn't strong enough to make it back into the ocean.

[00:39:44] So we actually got, I actually got to go see him the next day, get released into the ocean.

[00:39:49] And it was a pretty cool experience to see, you know, that I was, I was there to be able to rescue him.

[00:39:55] And then he made it out to sea.

[00:39:57] When you say trainers, is that somebody that was responsible for training you or somebody like turtle training?

[00:40:04] Oh, um, or field supervisors.

[00:40:07] Yeah.

[00:40:08] Okay.

[00:40:08] Okay.

[00:40:09] Cause my wife is currently watching for the first time Breaking Bad, no spoilers, but she did mention that apparently there's turtles in the show and they can be trained to come on call.

[00:40:18] Wow.

[00:40:18] Yeah.

[00:40:19] I did not know that.

[00:40:20] But we try to come into these interviews without too much prior knowledge.

[00:40:23] So I said, stop talking to me about these turtles.

[00:40:26] I need to be as ignorant as possible, please.

[00:40:27] Thank you very much.

[00:40:30] That's funny.

[00:40:30] If somebody lived on the coastline and wanted to get involved or learn more about it, how would they go about finding information?

[00:40:39] Is it, do they got to know somebody or they go online?

[00:40:41] Where's the best source of information on, on doing this and how they can contribute to the cause?

[00:40:46] Yeah.

[00:40:47] So pretty much every county down the coastline is going to have a patrol organization.

[00:40:54] And if you're lucky enough, you might have a marine aquarium nearby.

[00:40:58] Um, so the internet's going to be, um, Googling away is going to be a really good source of finding where your local patrol chapter is, or if there is one.

[00:41:08] And then if there's an aquarium, there's also too, there's a neat fact.

[00:41:11] A lot of people don't realize as they're walking on the beach.

[00:41:15] Um, we actually have our sign at every beach access point in Jacksonville.

[00:41:20] So a lot of people, you know, they're excited.

[00:41:23] You get to the beach and you're like, yeah, let's go.

[00:41:24] You don't sit on them, take them out to read the sign, but actually our organization's listed there.

[00:41:29] So that's another way you can find who's in the area.

[00:41:32] So when you find a nest and you mark it, and then weeks later, you're on, you're on another patrol.

[00:41:39] You see, you know, little turtle hatchling footprints or flipper prints going out to sea.

[00:41:47] Is that, is that kind of your sign that you can pull the stakes and now that one's done?

[00:41:52] Or is there kind of like, well, we need to keep this out here a few more days to, for any, for any of the, any of the slow ones.

[00:41:57] Uh, they're still, they're still in there trying to get out.

[00:42:01] Yeah, that's a good question.

[00:42:02] So what tends to happen is the best way to describe a turtle hatching is it's like, if you boil water,

[00:42:08] if like you're boiling rice and it boils over, it's basically all the turtles come out at once like that.

[00:42:13] But what happens is you're disturbing.

[00:42:16] Yeah, maybe, maybe not use a boil analogy, but, um, but yeah, so they all, we've been nesting basically in like a big group at once.

[00:42:26] But what tends to happen is if you have 150 eggs, there's probably some stuff under the eggs that can't get out.

[00:42:33] And so what we do is actually on the third day from when there was tracks.

[00:42:39] So like you said, we saw tracks from the babies day one, we go on day three and we actually dig up the nest.

[00:42:45] And we can take, we take out the stakes and we can basically count how many eggs were in there.

[00:42:51] And then we can, well, oftentimes what we find is turtles that, little patchlings that were stuck under eggs that couldn't make it out.

[00:42:58] And then we go and release them.

[00:43:01] Okay.

[00:43:02] Yeah.

[00:43:04] So I have a dog.

[00:43:06] He's extremely food fixated and he knows every place he's ever found food.

[00:43:11] And if he ever caught on that, if I see four stakes in the beach, that means food.

[00:43:16] Are there predators that have learned to recognize, oh, the turtle patrol has kindly shown me where, where to go?

[00:43:22] So is that ever a problem or is that, or am I giving animals too much credit?

[00:43:25] Is my dog special?

[00:43:27] Yeah.

[00:43:27] So I don't know how they find them, but the dogs and foxes and that kind of animal are smart and they know where they are.

[00:43:36] I think even without the stakes.

[00:43:38] So we put these like screens down to try to prevent them.

[00:43:41] The screens are staked in and they're, they're wide enough to where the hatchling can make it through all the, all the wire.

[00:43:48] But, but we try to stop the foxes and coyotes, but they're still good at ripping those up too.

[00:43:54] So.

[00:43:55] When you find a nest, you've got a radio, but you're, you got miles of beach.

[00:44:00] Are you using GPS or, or you, how do you, how does the buggy find you?

[00:44:05] Yeah.

[00:44:06] So luckily Google Earth helps us a lot because we can basically get a drop of 10 right on our coordinates and that helps.

[00:44:13] And the other thing is we use cross streets.

[00:44:15] So it might say, Hey, we're at between 39th and 40th Avenue North.

[00:44:21] And they'll know.

[00:44:22] Okay.

[00:44:23] If I, if I drive far enough that way, I'll see someone in the, in the blue shirt and they'll point me.

[00:44:29] Okay.

[00:44:29] Okay.

[00:44:31] So there's a uniform.

[00:44:32] You have a uniform out there?

[00:44:33] Yeah, we do.

[00:44:34] So we have these bright blue sea turtle patrol shirts.

[00:44:37] And, and so we're pretty recognizable on the beach.

[00:44:42] Huh?

[00:44:43] Yeah.

[00:44:44] Okay.

[00:44:45] And is that the universal standard for sea turtle patrol or is that just your chapter?

[00:44:51] Just our group.

[00:44:52] I mean, other organizations have different color.

[00:44:55] Okay.

[00:44:55] The message is always the same on the same shirt.

[00:44:58] So people don't, it doesn't, the big thing is it doesn't look like people in street clothes are out digging up sea turtles.

[00:45:04] Turtle nest.

[00:45:05] Cause that would be pretty bad.

[00:45:07] Yeah.

[00:45:08] That you know how life will find you.

[00:45:09] Right.

[00:45:09] Might get a few complaints.

[00:45:11] So you mentioned that this is all up and down the East coast.

[00:45:14] Is this a West coast of Florida as well?

[00:45:16] And all over to Texas, California.

[00:45:19] How, how broad is this opportunity?

[00:45:21] Yeah.

[00:45:22] So in the Gulf of Mexico, they'll have nest as well.

[00:45:26] So I'm just on the East coast of Florida and that's where I operate.

[00:45:30] But I mean, it's basically anywhere where there's a sandy beach and especially on the Gulf side, there's plenty of opportunities.

[00:45:36] Okay.

[00:45:36] Yeah.

[00:45:36] Okay.

[00:45:37] All right.

[00:45:39] All right.

[00:45:39] Well, we've asked about how people can find out more about your hobby and where do, where, if somebody was interested in your day job, how do people find out more about Brett, the worker bee?

[00:45:50] Yeah.

[00:45:50] Yeah.

[00:45:50] So I'm on LinkedIn.

[00:45:52] I'm just Brett Lazowski.

[00:45:53] And then our, um, we have our team website, our group, our company website, uh, life planning partners, life planning partners.

[00:46:00] All right.

[00:46:01] You mentioned that you had a terrific photo of the, the, the mother making it back to the surf.

[00:46:06] If there's any photos you can share with us, we'd be delighted to have them and put them in the episode because anything other than the three of us would be an improvement.

[00:46:13] So.

[00:46:15] Of course anything.

[00:46:16] Um, yeah, I can turtles, um, that I've held hatchling making out to see.

[00:46:22] I can, I've the crazy thing is in one year, I think I can make a movie with the amount of content I have.

[00:46:28] So happy to share.

[00:46:31] Excellent.

[00:46:31] Excellent.

[00:46:32] Well, we appreciate you being here.

[00:46:33] I've, I've learned a lot and I feel like, uh, my questions have gotten a lot of good answers.

[00:46:36] And so I'm, I'm grateful for that opportunity.

[00:46:38] Yeah, Brett, this is, this is really interesting.

[00:46:41] Uh, my sister, uh, lives, uh, at the space coast.

[00:46:44] They're just South of you.

[00:46:46] So I know there's a lot of turtle activity, um, and the beaches near them.

[00:46:50] So.

[00:46:51] So have you seen the stakes in the.

[00:46:52] Yeah.

[00:46:53] Yeah.

[00:46:53] Okay.

[00:46:53] Seen stakes.

[00:46:54] And, um, yeah.

[00:46:56] In fact, my daughter was down on, I want to say on spring break, she visited and there

[00:47:00] was something going on.

[00:47:02] They went over at like four, four in the morning or something.

[00:47:04] And they, uh, there was, I don't know.

[00:47:07] I, I, I, maybe it was a rocket.

[00:47:08] No, man.

[00:47:09] No, not.

[00:47:10] Well, that's different.

[00:47:10] There are those things too.

[00:47:12] No, I wouldn't.

[00:47:12] I wouldn't.

[00:47:13] I'm thinking that it was, uh, hatchlings.

[00:47:15] Like they were going over to just kind of see if they could see any hatchlings kind of

[00:47:19] going out, but maybe not.

[00:47:20] Maybe they were coming to see as the turtles come in.

[00:47:22] I don't know.

[00:47:23] I'll have to ask.

[00:47:23] I should have done that homework before this.

[00:47:25] Do you see tourists when you're out there doing your patrol?

[00:47:28] Yeah.

[00:47:29] Yeah.

[00:47:29] Tons.

[00:47:30] Um, like specifically turtle tourists, not just, oh, people come to Florida, but people

[00:47:34] come to see the turtles.

[00:47:35] Yeah.

[00:47:35] Yeah.

[00:47:36] There's definitely, especially during the summer, people will like, people are pretty

[00:47:40] crazy.

[00:47:41] They wake up in the morning and they'll stop and be like, oh, do you know when that nest

[00:47:44] is going to, going to hatch?

[00:47:46] You know when that one's in, there's people out there with like photograph, uh, you know,

[00:47:49] nice cameras and stuff.

[00:47:50] So, um, we're not, we're not the hottest.

[00:47:53] The best spot in Florida, but actually the space coast is a really good spot.

[00:47:58] Um, they, they actually have a national refuge there and they get something like 20 or 30,000

[00:48:05] nests every season.

[00:48:07] So that's actually a really cool spot.

[00:48:10] Are these things still endangered moving up the scale?

[00:48:14] Yeah.

[00:48:15] So they're still endangered, unfortunately across the board, but there's been at least

[00:48:21] some, from what we take the data and look at how many nests there are laden in our section

[00:48:27] and across the state.

[00:48:29] It's, there's been continued size improvement.

[00:48:32] So I think organizations like us are definitely helping play a part.

[00:48:36] All right.

[00:48:36] We'll keep up the good work.

[00:48:37] Yeah.

[00:48:38] Thanks for the work you do.

[00:48:39] And thanks for coming on the podcast.

[00:48:40] This is really interesting.

[00:48:40] And look forward to following you on social media and maybe seeing some more turtle pictures.

[00:48:45] Yeah, of course.

[00:48:46] Thanks for having me.

[00:48:47] This was a lot of fun.

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