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According to Dr. Llewellyn Ehrhart (see attached letter), who has studied sea turtle nesting in this general area for the past 15 years, Wabasso Beach supports 100 to 200 loggerhead turtle nests per kilometer per year. In any given year, approximately 7-8 % of all loggerhead nesting in Florida occurs on this beach. A preliminary survey on July 10, 1987 by Dale Jackson (FNAI) and Earl Possardt (USFWS) indicated abundant recent nesting by the loggerhead and definite nesting by the green turtle as well. Nesting was heaviest in the northern half of the proposed project area. Because the green turtle tends to be much more wary than the loggerhead when nesting, large expanses of undeveloped beach are especially important to this endangered species. It is likely that Wabasso Beach, already utilized by green turtles (exact numbers unknown), will become increasingly utilized by Florida's green turtles as other Atlantic coast beaches continue to be developed. The worm reefs off Wabasso Beach have been discovered recently to be likewise important to very young juvenile green turtles (see Ehrhart letter) and likely are of considerable importance to fishes and marine invertebrates as well. Worm reefs themselves are ranked G1/S1 (highest possible rank) by the Florida Natural Areas Inventory, although field study is needed to determine whether the Wabasso Beach worm reefs are fossilized. ALTERNATIVES & ANALYSIS: The Wabasso Beach project has been under consideration by the CARL Committee during the last year and has received favorable consideration by the committee during the first two votes. A third vote will take place on June 22, 1988. The next vote will rank all potential CARL projects, and the ranking will ultimately determine whether the project will receive funding. Generally, any project that ranks within the top 15 projects receives funding during the following year. After the June ranking vote, the ranked list will be forwarded to the State Cabinet for review in September. The Cabinet will either approve or modify the order of ranking as recommended by the CARL Committee, and the cabinet will authorize the Division of State Lands to begin the acquisition process. It is important to note that the Division of State Lands only acquires property from willing owners. No condemination action is utilized in the CARL acquisition program. Presently, the CARL program has approximately $40 million a year to spend on property acquisition. Projects with multiple ownerships, such as the Wabasso Beach project, would take several years to complete. The staff finds several advantages to recommending that the state consider funding the purchase of the Wabasso Beach property. The only negative aspect of the project concerns the loss of property tax revenue. The following points are positive features of the proposed project: 1. Preservation of continued viability of one of the most important sea turtle nesting populations in the world. 2. Preservation of natural habitats upland from the beach. This large area of coastal strand and maritime hammock habitats will be threatened by enormous coastal development pressures over the long term. 14 i Jj j 7 1988 16. Boo 72 Y A E 513