Jupiter Island Friends and Neighbors,
We did something a little different recently. We had the good fortune of being able to sit down with John Duchock, the Director of the Beach Protection District and the Assistant Town Manager of Jupiter Island, to hear about some of the things he and his team are doing. John has over 25 years of expertise in the field of coastal engineering, and his team is focused on programs that protect our coastline, our wildlife, and our special one-of-a-kind plant species.
Below is a segment of our Q/A with John that focuses on the sea turtle nesting season and how residents can get involved with supporting the plants and wildlife on the Island. We will also publish more from this time with John in our next email.
John Duchock is the Director of the Beach Protection District and the Assistant Town Manager of Jupiter Island (Photo from the Town of Jupiter Island website.)
Q: How is sea turtle nesting season important to Jupiter Island?
John said: Monitoring it is a requirement of the beach nourishment program from the state and federal government. Where there is threatened and endangered species listed, they want you to have programs in place to monitor them and make sure your projects are not impacting any of those.
So, on sea turtles, we do have the three listed species of sea turtles. We get the leatherbacks, the loggerheads, and the green turtles, which we monitor. We do monitor, and we are in that process already. Typically, that starts in mid-February, and then ends in late October, early November for turtle monitoring, and that’s daily morning surveys as turtles lay their eggs and nests mature. And then after the 60 or 75 day incubation period, we start an inventory to try to track nest success. All of this has to be reported to the FWC who really is in charge and responsible for the turtle programs in the state.
Q: What kind of special birds do we have on the Island?
John said: There’s some species of endangered shorebirds, not seabirds – there’s a difference – but shorebirds. The two that are listed are the Piping Plover and the Red Knot. And…we’ll go out twice a month. One of our turtle monitors is also our shorebird monitor so she’ll go out at various times to run the surveys that are required and will report back. I mean, we’ve occasionally seen Piping Plover here and there, not enough to say that we’ve got…a unique habitat or something going on. But, definitely there they’re around. So we keep an eye and we document when we see those. As far as seabirds, which isn’t a required monitoring, we’ve had Least Terns. If you see a section of the beach cordoned off, it probably was for Least Tern nesting.”
Q: How can residents get more involved on the Island if they like turtles or other wildlife monitoring?
John said: The FWC issues monitoring permits by geographic location. Citizens can sign up for turtle monitoring, but it is required to have a sponsor and it requires substantial training. The Town is responsible for monitoring from the Refuge to the north to the southern town limits. Blowing Rocks may have volunteers who are trained to help turtles that are stranded on the rocks. The Hobe Sound Nature Center also conducts nighttime tours of the beach where you have really good chances of watching and observing nesting turtles.
If you are looking for ways to see our amazing sea turtles up close, theHobe Sound Nature center will offer tours with a permitted FWC tour guide Thursday and Friday evenings through June and July. Reservations are now open and you can reserve your spot now to learn more about these amazing animals unique to our Island! Make your reservation on the Hobe Sound Nature Center website here.
Thank you for your continuing support of Jupiter Island Forever. We hope you all enjoying springtime on the Island, and we look forward to sharing more from our conversation with John Duchock in our next email.
Sincerely,
Jupiter Island Forever Leaders