Several Aquatic Preserve staff from the Southeast Region presented slides or posters at the SEACAR Project of Special Merit’s (PSM) Science Stories in Your Community Public Seminar showcasing work done in the region alongside the PSM team’s larger science communications initiatives. 

ORCP staff worked together to capture drone images of the living shoreline along Cat Point. Living shorelines have been monitored along Cat Point since 2004, with breakwaters and marsh plantings added throughout the years. The team set out to deploy ground control points (GCPs) across the survey space. Flights were flown the next day at low tide.

Rookery Bay’s Coastal Training and Engagement Team recently hosted another well-received session in the Reserve’s new Wildlife Interaction Workshop Series. This time the focus was placed on the mammals that call Collier County home. Participants explored the lives and behaviors of local species, from panthers and bats to dolphins and manatees. They also learned practical ways to protect these animals and the habitats they depend on.

Guana Tolomato Matanzas Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR) Water Quality Manager Katrin Villinger and Volunteer Coordinator Abby Kuhn hosted Pam Shipley, the winner of Friends of GTM’s “Researcher for a Day” fundraiser prize.

Staff from the Central Panhandle Aquatic Preserves (CPAP) hosted some special guests for a tour of the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (ANERR) Nature Center and to view nearby restoration projects.

Just after sunrise on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Reaserche Reserve (GTMNERR) volunteer Jeff Finnan witnessed one of the quiet closing scenes of coastal wildlife’s annual rhythm: the emergence of the final sea turtle nest of the season.

Over the course of six work days in the past four weeks, Oklawaha River Aquatic Preserve and Nature Coast Aquatic Preserve staff removed over 200 invasive tilapia from the headsprings of the Silver River. This is a huge accomplishment and almost 1,000 pounds of fish biomass removed! We are sincerely grateful for our team of three staff members and five volunteers for making this program such a success.

CHAP staff conducted their monthly Critical Wildlife Area (CWA) monitoring in Pine Island Sound AP and were happy to see the wading and diving bird nesting starting again. Staff observed great blue herons nesting on both CWAs as well as over 1,100 American white pelicans using one of the CWAs as a roosting/resting area!

Last week, DEP participated in the third annual ReeFLorida Symposium at the Philip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science (Frost Science), including leadership from ORCP and the Southeast Region and staff from the Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP).

Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve’s alligators have outgrown their tank in the reptile room! Every couple of years, they are exchanged for three babies. Otherwise, they would become too big for the tank. Ranger Zach Lepera and Aquarist Sarah Moulton took the overgrown alligators back to Gatorland in Orlando, and exchanged them for babies that hatched earlier this year.