NERDA Trustees seek public comment on projects to help sea turtles and shorebirds

The Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees have approved two projects for Florida designed to protect nesting areas for sea turtles and shorebirds.

The projects will total more than $6.3 million dollars and will take place on beaches from Escambia to Franklin County counties.

Over 170 miles of beaches in that area experienced oil and response impacts from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The Sea Turtle Project would improve the quality of nesting beach habitat by addressing artificial lighting.

The project will help eliminate, retrofit, or replace existing light fixtures in areas that are directly impacting beaches where loggerhead sea turtles nest.

The nesting shorebird project would provide money to mark sensitive nesting sites for beach-nesting birds and increase predator control and surveillance and monitoring of posted nesting sites.

The projects will be finalized after a public comment period which will run through December the 10^th.

You can get much more information about both projects and make comments on-line at gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov

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