SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Grant $700,000 To Help Protect At-Risk Animals

Endangered species and habitats under stress will get a much-needed lift this week thanks to $700,000 in grants being awarded by the non-profit SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund to wildlife protection projects in Florida and around the world.

The Fund’s board of directors approved grants to 83 projects, including seven Florida-based projects, that include wildlife rescue and rehabilitation efforts, research of little-known species, protection of critical habitat and grassroots education efforts aimed at increasing awareness and changing behaviors.

Some projects, like Sea to Shore Alliance’s sea turtle lighting survey, look at things from the animals’ point of view to gather new information.

Sea turtles hatch from their beach nests at night and depend on the glow from the horizon to guide them to the ocean. Lights on nesting beaches can disorient baby turtles and lead them away from the ocean where they fall victim to predators, vehicles or exhaustion. With support from the Fund, Sea to Shore Alliance will provide Florida’s first statewide assessment of beach illumination from the sea turtles’ perspective. Biologists will fly aerial surveys at night to collect video images and record beach lighting levels using special light measuring equipment. These data will be linked to GPS information allowing wildlife managers to quickly and easily compare, observe and locate areas with excessive beach lighting.

“We hope the information we gather on beach illumination will identify critical sea turtle-nesting areas in need of additional management," said James Powell, executive director of Sea to Shore Alliance. "This grant from the Sea World & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund will allow us to better monitor beach lighting and the effectiveness of new lighting technologies- an important step in the conservation of endangered sea turtles."

The Fund’s grant selection process is highly competitive and involves months of scrutiny, research and review by both internal and external animal experts.

“We zero in on the projects with the greatest potential for conservation impact,” said Virginia Busch, president and chairman of the board of the Fund. “The challenges and pressures facing wildlife and entire ecosystems are greater than ever. We receive significantly more grant requests than we can support, so we make every dollar we grant work as hard as possible to protect animals and habitats in need.”

While the Fund’s scope of projects is diverse, it continues to focus its support on core areas of concern: ocean health, human-animal conflict and the illegal wildlife trade. Examples from the 2009 grant awards include community-based restoration of Tampa’s estuaries, monitoring the migration paths of endangered right whales and their calves off the east coast of Florida and providing long-term care for animals confiscated from illegal situations. Through projects like these and others, the Fund is working to make a positive difference in the lives of both people and animals.

For more information on the Fund, including a complete list of this year’s grants, please visit www.swbg-conservationfund.org.