Turtle season winds down

Above left, Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shore Bird Monitoring Director Suzi Fox has received an award for leadership in the organization’s bird steward program that protects shore bird nesting colonies on the north end of Anna Maria Island. Also pictured are award winners Jeanne Dubi, president of Sarasota Audubon Society, and Julie Wraithmell, Audubon of Florida's director of wildlife conservation. The awards were presented last month at the Audubon Assembly, Audubon of Florida’s annual meeting, in St. Petersburg. Above right, a bench at the Intracoastal Waterway end of 10th Street South in Bradenton Beach is decorated with turtles. The Gulf end of the street is a favorite spot for Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch hatchling releases. Right, Turtle Watch volunteer Lee Zerkel shows off one of the hatchlings released last Tuesday evening in Bradenton Beach – the last of Anna Maria Island’s 2010 turtle crop. Two of those little Loggerhead hatchlings, left, head off to the Gulf of Mexico. It was an average year for turtles on the Island, Fox said. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill killed 609 sea turtles and injured 535 as of Oct. 29.