A toast to the turtles
LauderAle raising funds for sea turtles and hatchlings.
By day, Miranda Fuller marches up the coastlines of Broward County monitoring sea turtle tracks and excavating hatchling nests with the county’s Sea Turtle Conservation Program. By night, the 27-year-old is a full-time bartender at Fort Lauderdale brewery LauderAle.
Both sides of Fuller’s jobs will come together inside the brewery on Sunday during A Toast to Turtles, an environmental talk, beer release and fundraiser celebrating the half-shelled creatures. Fuller, a specialist with the Nova Southeastern University-managed sea turtle program, wanted the benefit to dovetail with sea turtle nesting season, which kicked off March 1 and continues through Oct. 31.
For the occasion, LauderAle will tap a sea turtle-inspired beer, Captain’s Lager, an easy-drinking blonde ale named after Captain, a juvenile green sea turtle and a permanent resident of NSU’s oceanfront Marine Environmental Education Center in Hollywood. Struck by a boat at Jacksonville’s Naval Station Mayport in 2010, the still-injured Captain has coped with buoyancy problems ever since, including her inability to dive and feed on sea grass.
“She’ll be an in-house patient for the rest of her life,” says Fuller, 27, who has a master’s in environmental science from Virginia’s Old Dominion University. “Sea turtles are one of the oldest species in the world, and we can learn a lot about the environment from them.”
Glenn Goodwin, an education specialist at the Marine Environmental Education Center, will deliver a 20-minute talk about Broward’s three types of sea turtles, catching and releasing hatchlings, and how the public can adopt beach nests. Visitors who donate $1 will be entered into a raffle for a sea turtle hatchling release, set for 9 p.m. Sunday at the education center.
The event has special meaning for LauderAle owner Kyle Jones, who has been enthralled with sea turtles since 2004, when he rescued a hatchling that washed up along the Intracoastal just before Hurricane Frances lashed the South Florida coastline. The loggerhead – he named him Frances – feasted on coral and shrimp inside Jones’ saltwater aquarium tank until the storm passed. Later, he gave Frances to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.
“Ever since then, sea turtles have been my spirit animal,” Jones says.
A Toast to Turtles will take place 3-6 p.m. Sunday at LauderAle, 3305 SE 14th Ave., in Fort Lauderdale. Admission is free, and beer is $1 off for those donating $5 to the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program. Call 954-653-9711.