Many area residents noticed increased traffic on Highway 98 the past few days likely in part to college spring breakers who are looking for fun in the sun on Gulf coast beaches. According to Tripsmart.com, this week and next week have the highest numbers of college students on spring break with more than 2.7 million students out of class this week and nearly 1.5 million next week.
The Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Center (NBSTCC) closed its doors Saturday in preparation for construction of a new pool and observation deck and improvements to the interpretative portion of the center. Volunteers completed inventory and locked the doors shortly after 2 p.m.
More sea turtles nest on Florida’s sandy beaches that on any other U.S. coastline. Biologists at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) hope the 2014 nesting season will be as successful as others in recent years.
Local residents and out-of-town visitors started lining Gulf Boulevard more than three hours before the start of Saturday’s 28th Annual Navarre Beach Mardi Gras parade hosted by the Navarre Krewe of Jesters. Sunny skies, warm temperatures and a parade with more than 50 entries were a perfect combination for what Krewe of Jester’s President Charlene Tremor called, “an amazing parade.”
The Navarre Beach Leaseholders and Residents Association (NBLRA) expressed frustration with the Santa Rosa County Commissioners at their monthly meeting Feb. 15 suggesting the elected officials needed to be more vocal about their support for grant funding for beach renourishment. NBLRA President Linda Coley said, “Without funding from another source – like the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) funding – the only method of paying for beach renourishment is the creation of an MSBU. The funding of the MSBU would fall mainly to the residents of Navarre Beach.”
The Santa Rosa County Commissioners gave their approval Feb. 13 for the Sea Turtle Conservation Center (STCC) to seek state permits to drill a saltwater well near the facility on Navarre Beach. The exact location has yet to be determined.
Santa Rosa County is actively seeking lifeguards to start the season on the beach next month. At this point, lifeguard coverage is set to begin March 15. Lifeguards will fill stands on Pensacola Beach two weeks earlier on March 1.
Swordfish management is a success story. Overfished in the 1980s and ’90s, the swordfish stock has since been fully rebuilt, thanks to domestic and international conservation measures.
Snowbirds Jan and Terry Janke arrived from Wausau, Wisconsin just in time to see how Florida deals with ice and snow. “We were amazed at the panic,” said Terry. Jan thought it was funny that the local news had to tell people to use hammers or boiling water to get ice off of their windshields. “We would have had everything cleaned up in two hours,” said Terry.
Members of the Beach Beatification Committee, neighbors and friends gathered at the pavilion in the boat ramp parking lot Jan. 31 to honor John Conner for his tireless efforts to beautify Navarre Beach. Conner is retiring from the BBC, a committee he started several years ago.
