What does the plan and protocols do?
The plan takes a proactive approach toward minimizing the anticipated oil-spill impacts by ensuring nests are marked in a manner that will prevent damage from beach clean-up operations and by coordinating the collection of nests at a point in the incubation cycle where transport of the incubating eggs is less likely to result in the loss of viable eggs. These nests are handled under a very strict protocol, packed in specially prepared Styrofoam boxes, and then transported by FedEx Custom Critical (FCC) trucks to the east coast of Florida. Once there, the nests are held in a secure, climate controlled facility at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) until incubation is complete. Here the nests are monitored by Innovative Health Applications, LLC (IHA) biologists and staff, and as hatchlings emerge, they are collected each night and transported and released near the surf line on an east central Florida beach where they are allowed to make their way to the ocean. Additionally, release locations
