The Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge is part of the United States National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) System, located along a twenty-mile (30 km) section of coastline from Melbourne Beach to

Wabasso Beach, Florida Wabasso Beach is a census-designated place (CDP) in Indian River County, Florida, United States. The population was 1,853 at the 2010 census, an increase of 72.4% since 2000. It is part of the Sebastian–Vero Beach Metropolitan Statistical A ...

, along

State Road A1A State Road A1A (SR A1A) is a major north–south Florida State Road that runs along the Atlantic Ocean, from Key West at the southern tip of Florida, to Fernandina Beach, just south of Georgia on Amelia Island. It is the main road through m ...

. The 900 acre (3.6 km²) refuge was established in 1991, to protect the loggerhead and

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhe ...

Management

Since 2012 the Archie Carr NWR is administered as part of the ''Everglades Headwaters NWR Complex'', along with

Pelican Island NWR Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge is a United States National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), and part of the Everglades Headwaters NWR complex, located just off the western coast of North Hutchinson Island in the Indian River Lagoon east of Sebas ...

Lake Wales Ridge NWR The Lake Wales Ridge National Wildlife Refuge is part of the United States National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) System, located in four separated areas on the Lake Wales Ridge east of US 27 between Davenport and Sebring Florida. The 1,194 acre (4.8 ...

, and the

Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area The Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area, created in 2012, the newest addition and 556th unit of the United States National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) System, began with donated to the conservation effort as part of t ...

, through a partnership with the

Caribbean Conservation Corporation The Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC), formerly known as Caribbean Conservation Corporation, is an American not-for-profit 501(c)(3) membership organization based in Gainesville, Florida. STC was incorporated, based on an earlier informal organization ...

(a nonprofit turtle conservation group founded by Dr.

Archie Carr Archie Fairly Carr, Jr. (June 16, 1909 – May 21, 1987) was an American herpetologist, ecologist, and conservationist. He was a Professor of Zoology at the University of Florida and an acclaimed writer on science and nature. He brought attentio ...

himself) and Archie Carr Working Group.

Habitat

The refuge provides nesting habitats for approximately one-fourth of all sea turtles nesting in the United States. About 15,000-20,000 sea turtles nests are laid annually, mostly loggerheads, green sea turtles, and some

leatherbacks The leatherback sea turtle (''Dermochelys coriacea''), sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth, is the largest of all living turtles and the heaviest non-crocodilian reptile, reaching lengths of up to and weights ...

. The refuge also provides habitat for several other threatened and endangered species. Three centers within the sanctuary are run by

Brevard County Brevard County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 606,612, making it the 10th-most populated county in Florida. The official county seat is located in ...

under the aegis of the restrictions established by the federal government.

Conservation efforts

Archie Carr NWR is threatened by

sea level rise Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cry ...

. Scientists and researchers are studying the impacts of sea level rise on this ecosystem.

Notes

External links

*
Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge
at

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
on climate and sea level rise in the Southeast US
{{authority control Indian River Lagoon Melbourne Beach, Florida National Wildlife Refuges in Florida Protected areas established in 1991 Protected areas of Brevard County, Florida Protected areas of Indian River County, Florida 1991 establishments in Florida