Florida plans to kick sea turtle rescuers off the beach, calling them a threat to environment

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Florida wildlife commission has identified a new menace to the marine environment: volunteers who protect sea turtle nests.

For more than a decade, unpaid guardians have watched over sea turtle nests in Broward County, rescuing thousands of hatchlings led astray by artificial lights.

Now the state wants to cut the number of volunteers as a step toward ejecting them completely from the beach. The state wildlife commission told three sea turtle rescue groups that their nighttime vigils are unnecessary and harmful, saying in a letter “the increased human presence on the beach at night during nesting and hatching season in effect endangers the health and safety of marine life.”