Brian: 0:11

Welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast. Today we are sitting with Kendra Bergman from the Coastal Connections. We're excited to have you on the podcast with us.

Kendra: 0:20

It's exciting to be here. I'm so pumped and ready.

Shawna: 0:23

I know we're gonna talk about sea turtles.

Brian: 0:25

Yeah, shauna's been waiting. Linda from Coconut Casita said you guys need to reach out to Coastal Connections. We've been out at the beach. We've seen some of this stuff around that which we're going to talk about later in this episode. But yeah, sean was like you need to reach out to them. We've been so backed up I'm like we're going to reach out, so we're so glad that we're here today.

Brian: 0:44

And trust me we will talk about sea turtles quite a lot, well, so right now we're sitting. If nobody's been here before, we're actually at, this is your office space.

Kendra: 0:52

Is that correct? Yeah, yeah, we are sitting in our office over here at Riverside, right above the tackle shop here, and it's a small cozy but very productive space. Let me tell you.

Brian: 1:01

So we just rented a boat for our vacation like one of those pontoon boats, and we're like we got to find where that place is that we just rented from and it's the place right below.

Kendra: 1:09

Oh yeah, I was going to immediately. When you said renting a pontoon, I was like there's only so many spots. All right, Kendra, it's great to meet you. Can you take about 30 seconds and tell us a little bit about yourself? I'm actually a Texas native. I moved to Florida when I started college and never left. My background is in marine biology. I have a master's degree in conservation efforts, kind of wrapped around sea turtles. I really focus on studying the sea turtles and how people influence the conservation efforts of sea turtles around one of our most precious natural resources or gems here, which is the Archicard National Wildlife Refuge, and so that's kind of what brought me here after school to Vero. I moved here right after I finished graduate school and this has been my home for the last 10 years. Roots are placed and this is it. We love it here in Bureau.

Brian: 2:03

I would love for you to kind of just maybe explain to us what conservation means as well, for anybody who's listening.

Kendra: 2:06

Oh yeah, conservation is really focused on conserving or protecting either a type of wildlife or a plant animal you name, it doesn't matter ecosystem, whatever that focus is, but the ultimate goal is to make sure that that resource that you're talking about is protected and available for generations to come. So kind of on that level. Even the word sustainability right, sustainable You're pretty much just making sure that it can exist and it's thriving. So we're focused at Coastal Connections, on conserving our sea turtles or protecting our sea turtles. Because they are listed on the Endangered Species Act. They have been on that list since the beginning, so since the 1970s, early 1970s and because sea turtles take so long to reproduce, they actually take longer than some humans do, typically about 20 to 25 years for reproduction for the very first time. So it's a lot of time.

Kendra: 3:06

You kind of have to make it out there in the wild Because it takes so long. They have to be listed on the Endangered Species Act for a long time. Right, they need protections for a long time. They need care and thoughtful management, because our ultimate goal is to make sure that all of our sea turtle species are healthy, functioning and living wildly out in the oceans, our lagoon, utilizing our beaches for nesting all of these different things. That's really what we're focused on is making sure that we're part of that recovery story and really bringing you in on it. So have you heard of Palm Island? It's by Englewood, florida. When you say Palm Island, I like naturally think about the UAE, where they like make islands in the shapes of palms.

Shawna: 3:49

But I don't think that's what you're talking about.

Brian: 3:51

That's great. I'm sure you're going to say words to me that I'm going to be like.

Brian: 3:54

Well, when you say that, I'm thinking this so we were on vacation one year at Palm Island and we did a bicycle, a bike ride on the beach, you know. So it was the first time we did it. It was a couple's vacation, a great time and we came across this turtle shell that was probably four feet long and it was up on the beach shore and I lifted it up and there was, like a skeleton, I guess bones underneath it.

Kendra: 4:22

Well, they had like a little museum, so I hadn't, I had no idea. So please just understand this is out of ignorance.

Brian: 4:25

So I grabbed that turtle shell and I was like we're going to take it to that little museum on the beach because they might want this. So we've got a video and pictures of me First.

Kendra: 4:33

I have me standing next to it how big that show was, and then I rode that bicycle holding that show of one hand and it stunk.

Brian: 4:44

Oh yeah, it was very decomposing turtle. We rode it all the way back to the museum. Of course they were closed, so we left it at their doorstep. We came back like people they didn't know better the next day and said hey, did you guys get the turtle shell that we found and brought and laid on your porch?

Kendra: 4:56

I'm sure their eyes were wide. They were wide.

Brian: 4:59

They're like yeah, you're not allowed to touch those. Maybe you can explain why they do that. But they put it there for it to kind of decompose.

Shawna: 5:06

Yeah, they said they kept trying to rebury it and then it kept making its way back to them.

Brian: 5:10

Yes.

Shawna: 5:11

And they were like for future reference do not touch a turtle shell.

Kendra: 5:15

So what they're doing is they were actually letting all of the fatty tissues and cartilage decompose and let nature so ants, bugs, critters, fungus, you name it kind of eat away at that. So what was left is the shell that they can actually preserve and use for education and outreach. Yeah, so they had to get all the ugly, nasty, smelly stuff out and done, because it was a really good looking shell.

Brian: 5:40

It was very good If it wasn't, you wouldn't have touched it.

Kendra: 5:43

Yeah, and so they're just going to use that for kids activities? We actually have shells like that here in our office that we use for our school education programs, so kids can wear a turtle shell and really see what it's like to be a turtle as part of their activities.

Brian: 5:58

Okay, See, they didn't explain that to us. They did tell us do not touch any turtle shells, it is illegal, and I'm like I had no idea.

Kendra: 6:06

But it's like all right and they're not wrong. I will say here, at Coastal Connections, our approach is a little bit different. The end result is exactly the same, but we might say it a little bit different when we're trying to explain why we ask you not to do that?

Brian: 6:23

Yeah, thanks for answering that question.

Kendra: 6:25

That helps clarify yourself.

Brian: 6:26

to me, oh great, that means.

Kendra: 6:27

I can answer a bunch of questions. Probably a loggerhead turtle sounds. I mean just the size of it alone and the location. I can promise you it's probably a loggerhead.

Brian: 6:36

So what drew you to this type of work?

Kendra: 6:38

To be honest, my origin story with sea turtles really goes back to when I was in eighth grade on a family vacation out in Hawaii. I was right offshore snorkeling. If you've ever been to Hawaii or heard about it, there's just reefs right there and it's just stunning. And so I'm just out snorkeling and this green turtle just swims right up to me, stares at me and is like okay, bye, and just turns around and majestically swims away and I'm like I like you. That's I like you and my mom. I grew up with a mom who loved dolphins. A lot of our vacations were always beaches or, you know, going to meet show dolphins like Flipper, if you remember that famous character.

Kendra: 7:20

I've interacted with quite a few dolphins in my life and so I didn't want to do exactly what my mom loved. I wanted to be a little different, so she liked dolphins, so I picked turtles. I did go to college for marine biology and just I'm the one percent that are kind of already knew what I wanted to do and I just stuck with it. I know that I'm the oddball of the world and that's probably why I do so well with this organization, because I'm still an oddball.

Shawna: 7:45

We like to call those unicorns. You're a unicorn Bark. We like to call those unicorns.

Kendra: 7:50

You're a unicorn, barkley poop and all.

Brian: 7:52

I know that we love sea turtles. I don't think we've ever seen one on the shore yet. We've only seen them like we've seen them out in the water right now. We've seen a lot of them, like over at Golden Sand. Is that right? We've seen a lot of them sticking their heads up over the water.

Kendra: 8:03

Yeah, our green turtles are mating at the moment, so we've been getting a lot of we're. We're then our organization for Indian river County, florida, which is where Vero beaches. We are the primary rescue responding group for turtles. So we have done a lot of work really doing outreach and getting people to know hey, if you see a sick or injured or distressed turtle, call us, like we will go get some eyes on it. We'll get a rescue responder out there and transport it to a rehab facility if it needs it. So part of the conservation success story that I mentioned, that we're working towards and we're trying to involve everyone in, is kind of just happening right now, especially with our green turtle species.

Kendra: 8:47

So green turtles were extremely rare in Florida back in the early 80s and early 90s. Based on some historic data collected by the UCF or University of Central Florida Marine Turtle Research Group out on the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, you know they might have had 30, 40, at max 50 green turtle nests in an entire year on that large refuge. They now get 20,000. And it's an absolutely incredible story to see that happen. And so even just five, six years ago we weren't seeing these mating pairs offshore and now we are all of a sudden and we're seeing them so much. We get calls almost every day from people going. I think I see a turtle. It's floating. It looks like it's in distress. I'm like, can you make sure there's not another head? Because I promise you that's not distress. It's a new approach with people because, again, that was not a common conversation just a few years ago, which is really neat.

Shawna: 9:55

I just saw a post a couple of days ago and it was a picture of a mating green turtle pair and I mean it does look like something's wrong.

Kendra: 9:58

It does, yeah, and you know I'm not going to complain when people call it. You know we joke about it every time they call, but it's not. I'm so excited to know that our community finally realizes hey, there's a place to go to, there are people who specialize in this and they know what they're looking at. And so I'm so excited to know that our community has kind of accepted us as a keystone in the community.

Brian: 11:01

So I got another funny story for you. It was on a family vacation with Shana's side of her family. We'd always go over to Clearwater and it was one year we were out there. It was the evening walk. People were out walking, it was dark.

Shawna: 11:12

This lady runs up with her cell phone flashlight on her two dogs on leashes. She's like my dog got this turtle egg. I can't do anything about it because they're going to dig up more. So take this and find a place to put it. And she runs off, literally just runs down the beach. We had no idea what to do. We're like let's go home and Google it. Maybe we can find out. And I feel this ridge, this perfect plastic ridge all the way around.

Kendra: 11:35

This sounds like a data logger.

Shawna: 11:38

It was a ping pong ball. It was a ping pong ball. So then we felt so dumb and we're like did this lady just punk us?

Brian: 11:45

But you think it might be a data logger.

Shawna: 11:46

You think?

Brian: 11:46

it might be an egg, no, I think a data logger.

Kendra: 11:48

So there's actual, really cool new technologies where scientists, depending on what they're studying, they can get these neat data loggers that look like eggs and put them into the clutch to collect data during the incubation of that clutch whether it's temperature data, moisture data, movement, sound, all sorts of stuff. So sometimes they'll actually look like the actual egg. We're going to have to look up what a data logger is movement, sound, all sorts of stuff, wow.

Brian: 12:10

so sometimes they'll actually look like the actual egg we're gonna have to look up what a data logger looks like well there's tons of them.

Kendra: 12:16

you know other parts of the world not in the United States there is still a legal trade of cetral eggs, and so, um, there are other studies that actually use fake eggs that are computers, and they track the trade of those eggs because they'll be in the clutch of whatever eggs are being sold, and so they can find black market buyers.

Brian: 12:39

That's cool. Listen, I am not stealing eggs and picking up turtle shells everywhere, like you're painting a bad picture of me here. That's not here where, like you're painting a bad picture of me here.

Kendra: 12:50

That's not here. Luckily, that's not really a major concern here in the United States. I think we, as you know, Floridians have really kind of taken sea turtles under our wing as our own responsibility to protect, which is really cool. We're pretty protective of them.

Brian: 13:06

Well, I was reading on your I believe it was on your site. I was reading about how sea turtles are essential to the marine ecosystem.

Kendra: 13:13

Can you?

Brian: 13:13

explain a little bit about that.

Kendra: 13:15

Yeah, that's great, I think. During our public presentations, we always called this the so what, who cares? Section. You know, and that is sea turtles. Okay, what happens if they disappear? What's the big deal? Why do we spend so much time, energy, financial resources on protecting a species? Well, turns out, studies have shown us that sea turtles are considered a keystone species. So what that means is, if you were to remove that species from the ultimate ecosystem or the food chain itself, there would be a collapse. And so why that happens with sea turtles and why they're so critical one?

Kendra: 13:51

They're highly migratory, so when they move, they actually carry the critters and the bacteria and all of the microscopic organisms that are living on their shell. They take them with them, and when they reef hop, they feed tons and tons of fish or they mix nutrients within those reefs as well to keep them viable. Our coral reefs and our reefs in general are critically important for commercial fishing, for recreation, tourism, you name it. Tons of industries that are not even, you know, just an ecosystem thriving situation. And so they're not only feeding fish and other critters, they're migrating, mixing those nutrients across the ocean waters, through the thousands and thousands of miles they might travel. And then the other cool part is they actually are one of the very few species in the entire world that move from water to land right, thinking of that, because their nesting occurs on dry land, while the rest of the 99% of their life is spent out in salty water.

Kendra: 14:52

And so when that happens and they lay those eggs not every egg hatches, if something doesn't hatch, like that dead turtle that was decomposing on your beach at Palm Island, not my beach when things decompose, they create nitrogen. Well, a plant's favorite food is nitrogen, and so they're naturally fertilizing the dunes. That would be your natural first line of protection from storms climate change, you name it and so it's really important to have vegetated dunes, our sandy dunes, so that that sand can protect all of our structures that we've decided to build in these coastal communities. So there's tons of different ways that you know, and I hate to say this. My last little bit the hatchlings that do make it maybe only one in a thousand will actually make it to adulthood. Those hatchlings we've found are extremely important for commercial fish you like to eat, and that's a critical food source for a segment of that fish's year.

Shawna: 15:51

Was there a moment that made you feel this is exactly where I need to be and what I need to be doing?

Kendra: 15:57

I wouldn't say that that feeling was that warm and fuzzy. I have a scientist brain, so you know data, numbers, results. That really is what drives my decision making, not so much emotions. So when I first moved to Vero, I had a job in the local county environmental management group. At the time it was called the Coastal Division. It's changed and evolved over time. There was a time when I was like I'm county staff. I'm the only sea turtle expert who lives and works in this entire county and we. Our entire county is just south and actually includes part of the National Wildlife Refuge, the Archicar Refuge, which is the most important space for nesting sea turtles in the state of Florida and the United States. It's right here in our backyard.

Shawna: 16:40

We saw that sign. Remember the? And it shows the map.

Kendra: 16:43

Yeah, we just found out about that and it's it's a very unique refuge, but it is, in fact, the most important nesting ground for nesting turtles here in the United States. And I was here and I was like there's not a group working together On sea turtle conservation here, like there's myself and a couple of volunteers that are volunteering for the county government. We need to be doing more, and so that's where the organization got started. It was a labor of love on weekends and nights, tons and tons of volunteer hours between myself and a few core individuals in this community who are still with the organization today. Oh, that's awesome, and we built it from the ground up, grassroots, just knowing that sea turtles need to be protected. People need to love them just as much as we do and be just as connected and emotionally driven by them to make good choices.

Kendra: 17:33

We're now eight years old here at Coastal Connections and we've evolved, but the community has evolved with it. Their love and passion has grown just as much as the organization. Their involvement from the community has grown through volunteerism just as much as the organization, and it's been really exciting to see how our lessons that we like to teach you know, one movement or one behavior or one action may only seem small to you, but if everyone in this community is doing it, it's no longer small. Yeah, how many people do you have that volunteer with you? So we have two different types of volunteer opportunities, so what we call our program volunteers. They're onboarded, they're trained, they're scheduled. There's about 150. And then community volunteers are people from our community who show up to you know events that they're available to participate in. We probably interact with 2,000 or more of them a year. Wow.

Brian: 18:27

Well, this has been a great first episode. Kendra, I was going to let you ask another question, but I think we're going to wait to episode two.

Brian: 18:34

We're going to dive into the behind the scenes and I'll just give you like a little bit of heads up. Before we go there, we're going to ask you if there's some kind of meaning behind the different colored ribbons that we've seen around the Nessings. So we'll get there. We'll get there and, for those of you that are tuned in, if you enjoyed this episode, make sure you click that subscribe and leave us a review and with that, catch you next time neighbor.