Save The Turtles,Area 2A Everglades

My name is Gerald Motes. It will take a long time to tell all of my story so I will add on as time goes by. I live in the Everglades, in an area known as WCA 2A. I am semi retired and operate tour boats for an income. I've lived here for many years now (full time) and am located 7 miles from the nearest landing. There are no roads where I live. I come and go by airboat. I live off the grid in a cabin (located on a man made island) that was started in 1953 by hunters. The island was started later after the water level rose and covered the "ridge" that the hunters once camped on in tents. As the water level rose, the turtles had no other land to lay eggs on but the "man island" - there is no other dry land in this particular area for them to go to. Today, it is the safe haven for turtle nesting, but the young hatchlings have no chance of survival. The island is a target for every thing that eats turtles. This is where I come in.

In my first year, I had a lot of time for the turtles and released 2,322 live turtles from this small island. The second year was only 1,113 because I started work and other reasons. The following year was a disaster with less than 600. We had a cool spring with a lot of rain. I had the eggs but was not set up for the weather. Over the years I have experienced with different methods of hatching them, but all the supplies are out of pocket expenses.

I started this back when I was 69 - I am now 79 and have battled health issues the past few years, but I am in good health now and intend to do this for many years to come. I get a lot of gratification from knowing that I can put something back into the everglades that has been taken away by mismanaging the resources.

I have been granted a permit to study the turtles and report those findings each year to ensure that I can continue to do this work - and hopefully it provides the state with evidence to show that change is needed to save these turtles, as well as the other species in these areas.

I would like to continue working to save the turtles and ensure they have the best chance at life, but financial help would go along way towards accomplishing that. Any contribution will be greatly appreciated and will be used wisely with many updates and pictures being posted on the Facebook page Old Glory Camp.

I thank you for your support. Captain Gerald