Miami-Dade Parks and Recreation's Turtlepalooza Event

Overview

On Sunday, March 16th, 2025, The International SeaKeepers Society's Director of Education & Outreach, Toni Lohroff, and Educational Outreach Associate, Jack Rucker, participated in the 2025 Turtlepalooza community event organized by Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation to kick off the 2025 South Florida sea turtle nesting season. The event featured a coastal cleanup at Crandon Park and Beach, educational presentations featuring ambassador animals like red-footed tortoises, and a conservation village featuring local community organizations like SeaKeepers. As a part of this event, SeaKeepers tabled with almost 15 other South Florida conservation education organizations and spoke with around 100 local community members and students about our completely free educational and community engagement offerings. Some of our promoted programs include coastal cleanups, floating classrooms, classroom presentations, digital lesson plans, and our Junior SeaKeepers program, amongst others. While a main feature of this event was informing the public about protections to take during 2025's sea turtle nesting season on our coastlines, our work seemed to be well received and we look forward to the opportunity to serve more members of our local South Florida community in 2025!