APRIL 2025

Wendy Noke Durden (left) and Teresa Jablonski (right) from Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute will speak at April Members’ meeting.

Friends of Canaveral Annual Members’ Meeting Set for April 29

Friends of Canaveral will hold its annual members’ meeting on Tuesday, April 29, at the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library. The meeting will be held from 5-6:30 p.m., in the library’s auditorium.

There will be an election of the Friends of Canaveral’s board of directors for 2025, followed by a special presentation by Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute (HSWRI) research scientists Wendy Noke Durden and Teresa Jablonski.

HSWRI has been an active participant in the Southeast U.S. Marine Mammal Stranding Network for nearly three decades with the team of Noke Durden and Jablonski overseeing stranding response along the central east coast of Florida. The two regularly monitor the waters of the Indian River Lagoon and respond to both live animal strandings and entanglements, as well as gather pathology and data from deceased cetaceans (dolphins) for long-term scientific research.

Noke Durden has studied the population biology, behavioral ecology and health of marine mammals for more than 20 years and has published more than 24 scientific manuscripts. Her research is focused on the conservation, health and ecology of local whale and dolphin populations. She also oversees the marine mammal research and rescue program, including marine mammal stranding response.

Jablonski is the co-manager of the Marine Mammal Stranding Program in Florida. Her team is on call 24/7 to respond to whale and dolphin strandings along nearly 40 percent of Florida’s east coast. With more than 20 years of experience, Jablonski’s research focuses on marine mammal health, life history, fishery interactions and the population biology of dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon and Halifax River estuaries. She has contributed to marine mammal conservation and the rescue of numerous dolphins, including the entangled dolphin featured in the motion picture “Dolphin Tale,” which was rescued near Turtle Mound in Canaveral National Seashore.

The meeting is open to the public at the library, located at 1001 South Dixie Freeway in New Smyrna Beach. Guests will have a chance to ask questions about Friends of Canaveral membership, as well as about the guest speakers’ presentation and continued work with marine mammals.

Lisa D. Mickey

President, Friends of Canaveral

Lisa D. Mickey is a Florida Master Naturalist/ Florida Land Steward

Canaveral and ACA Host Artist-in-Residence Dani Ferreira Amaro

The ACA Soundscape Field Station, a partnership between Atlantic Center for the Arts and Canaveral National Seashore, hosted sound artist, Dani Ferreira Amaro as its 2025 artist-in-residence. Amaro lived in the national park from February 24 to March 31, exploring Canaveral National Seashore to create a site-specific, tactile sound sculpture made from sargassum (seaweed) and materials representing the cultures of Florida.

During the residency, she engaged with the public to demonstrate her creative process in the park, both through musical and tactile artistic presentations. A trained jazz musician and music teacher in Miami, Amaro’s approach to environmental storytelling combines visual art with new ways to tangibly experience music.

For more information visit the Atlantic Center for the Arts website.

ACA Soundscape Field Station 2025 artist-in-residence Dani Ferreira Amaro displays a sustainable textile made of sargassum (seaweed) during her artist talk at the Doris Leeper House in March.

CONSERVATION CORNER

Marine Discovery Center Still Active in Horseshoe Crab Monitoring

By Tess Sailor-Tynes

Marine Discovery Center

Conservation Science Coordinator

Marine Discovery Center has a long history with Limulus polyphemus, also known as the Atlantic Horseshoe Crab.

This species exists along the East coast of the United States and on both coasts of Florida. They have scientific and medical significance and are facing threats from issues like habitat loss, predation from invasive species and pollution.

In 2018, MDC’s Conservation department officially joined Florida Horseshoe Crab Watch (Linked with Limulus) – a statewide community-science effort organized by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

Since joining, MDC has focused on gathering data for the Northern region of the Indian River Lagoon. Historically, site locations included Riverside Drive, Firecracker Island and two shorelines within Canaveral National Seashore. Throughout this timeline, staff and volunteers have ventured out on high tides during full- and new-moon cycles to monitor for nesting behavior.

VOLUNTEER VOICES

Joyce Dykes

Like most volunteers at Canaveral National Seashore (CANA), Joyce Dykes has offered her services in many capacities. Get to know this special volunteer and how she feels about assisting in the national park:

Q: What is your background?

A: I was born in Washington, D.C., near the end of World War II. Because Walter Reed Army Hospital was full of soldiers, the hospital had set up a Quonset hut [a lightweight, building designed for quick and easy assembly] on the Washington Mall for the mothers. I realize now how unique it was to grow up in D.C. I met many of our U.S. Presidents and often ate lunch in the U.S. Senate cafeteria. My neighbors were employed by the Secret Service, FBI, CIA and U.S. military.

Q: Did you stay in D.C., or later move around with jobs and family?

A: My first husband was a lawyer with the Securities and Exchange Commission and I worked for a large law firm. We have two sons and in 1980, we moved to the Chicago area. When we divorced in 1985, I moved to Orlando, Fla., to be closer to my parents. I worked as a secretary for the Minute Maid Company, a division of the Coca-Cola Company, located in Plymouth, Fla. I met my second husband in 1986, and we married in 1987. When I retired from Coca-Cola in 2006, we bought a fifth-wheel travel trailer and traveled the country for six years. We would live in a campground for two to three months and explore the nearby area. We lived in Maine, California and North Carolina, but retained Florida as our home base. In 2012, we fully retired and moved to a senior community in Edgewater, Fla.

Q: How did you get connected with Canaveral National Seashore and what kind of roles have you played as a volunteer?

A: CANA has been a favorite of mine since I moved to Florida, so once I retired, I was eager to volunteer there. I started volunteering as a docent in the Eldora State House in 2010. I also have worked in the park’s Visitor Center, helped with educational programs for school children, served as an interpreter on the pontoon boat tours, monitored sea turtle nests and I help put together the monthly calendar of park activities.

Q: Has there been a highlight for you as a park volunteer?

A: The pontoon boat tours were, by far, my favorite volunteer activity! I wish we could get back to offering them.

Q: What do you enjoy most about volunteering in the park?

A: Volunteering is very important to me. I have had such a good life that I feel a strong need to give back. Plus, it's just plain fun!

DID YOU KNOW?

Leatherback Turtles

Image courtesy of Jackie Frymire with NSB Turtle Trackers

You may have heard that the first sea turtle to nest on the beaches of Canaveral National Seashore this year was a leatherback sea turtle. New Smyrna Beach Turtle Trackers volunteer Jackie Frymire witnessed the leatherback digging in the sand on March 9. This was an especially unusual event as the official sea turtle nesting season starts on May 1 and only 7 of the 902 nests counted last year were made by leatherbacks.

READ MORE of the Daytona Beach News-Journal article.

Friends of Canaveral in the Community

The 2025 ShORE Symposium will be held on Thursday, April 10, at the Brannon Center. ShORE (Sharing Our Research with Everyone) is a daylong, FREE event that is open to the public and discusses research going on in the Indian River Lagoon both by professional scientists and by high school and college undergraduate students.

To learn more and to register for this FREE event CLICK HERE.

SPEAKING WITH THE LAND

Saturday, April 19 at 10 am

Atlantic Center for the Arts, NSB

Celebrate Earth Day with us at ACA main campus for an interactive and immersive outdoor experience inspired by the environmental legacy of founder, artist and environmentalist Doris ‘Doc’ Leeper.

LEARN MORE

2025 GARDEN TOUR

Wednesday, April 23, 9 am - 4 pm

Various homes in Bethune Beach

Friends of Canaveral is sponsoring the home located at 839 Halibut Avenue on the New Smyrna Beach Garden Club 2025 Garden Tour. Come out to say hello to our FOC volunteers.

PURCHASE TICKETS

BECOME A FRIEND OF CANAVERAL NATIONAL SEASHORE

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DISCOUNTS - 15% discount at the Canaveral National Seashore Gift Shop
SUBSCRIPTION - Subscription to the Friends of Canaveral e-Newsletter
INVITES - Notification and invites to special events sponsored by the Friends of Canaveral or Canaveral National Seashore
OPPORTUNITIES - Learn about or volunteer for projects supporting sea turtle conservation, plant and sound ecology, environmental education, and endangered species.

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REPORT VIOLATIONS

If you suspect a fish, wildlife, boating, or environmental law violation, report it to the FWC's Wildlife Alert Reward Program:

888-404-FWCC (3922).