Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Center

ABOUT THIS PLACE

The center opened in 2013 in the building of an old state park ranger station at 8740 Gulf Boulevard, inside Navarre Beach Marine Park. It is run almost entirely by volunteers. The centerpiece is a saltwater tank of 15,000 gallons holding Sweet Pea, a green sea turtle injured badly enough that she cannot be released, who serves as what the center calls its ambassador in residence. For a great many of the 65,000 people who come through in a year she is the first sea turtle they have ever seen, and seeing one at arm's length changes how people think about the nests roped off on the beach outside. The center's stated purpose is conserving and protecting threatened and endangered sea turtles through community education and partnered research, and it works with the nesting surveys that run along this stretch of coast every summer. Loggerheads, greens and the occasional Kemp's ridley nest on the sand a few steps from the door