ANNA MARIA ISLAND, Fla — With thousands of sea turtle hatchlings already this year, keeping the beach clean is even more of a top priority now for the Anna Maria Island Turtle Watchers.
"Both adults and hatchlings, encounter toys and beach furniture on the beach that impede their travel to the water," says Kristen Mazzarrella, executive director for Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch, "It could keep the hatchlings from being able to see the horizon, so they might get confused, or they might use a little bit of extra energy to go around those toys."
And during a busy travel season, beachgoers who fail to clean up toys or leave sand castles can pose a danger.
WATCH: Local Girl Scout aims to save turtles by keeping Anna Maria Island beaches clean
That's where 16-year-old Girl Scout and Florida native Zoe Landers got her idea to build a toy box.
"When I first put it here, I had a lot of toys from my community that people I reached out to them and they said, yeah, here's some toys that I don't need anymore and honestly I think all of them are gone now and it's all brand new toys," says Landers.
Landers received the Girl Scout Gold Award from Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida, the highest honor a Girl Scout can earn, for the project.
"Toys are often left on the beach, and I thought it would be a great way to have the toys be picked up somewhere so sea turtles can make it to the sea safer," says Landers.
Now, as a busy nesting season crawls to a close, the thousands of hatchlings have someone looking out for them.
The Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch says over 14,000 hatchlings have hatched so far this year.
"He just never showed up"
What started as a project to make a bathroom more accessible for 80-year-old Sharon Shomaker turned into a family paying for a job without seeing any work and discovering the plumber they hired had no business taking the job.
