Florida residents are continually pushing the envelope with the law.
One man discovered exactly how bad things can get when everything goes wrong.
And a Florida driver’s arrest went from bad to worse after this awful mistake.
DUI suspect plows through endangered species nest
Manuel Ortega Orellana, a 42-year-old illegal alien, was spending a Sunday evening driving around drunk in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
He decided to go cruising on the Fort Lauderdale beach when he floored it through a loggerhead sea turtle nest while volunteers were monitoring it.
Orellana came within feet of hitting Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission-sanctioned volunteers.
Cellphone video captured his joyride on the beach in his SUV.
The loggerhead sea turtle is considered a threatened species under the Federal Endangered Species Act and is also protected by the Florida Marine Turtle Protection Act.
“The driver made multiple passes down the beach, back up, down, and back up again, I think looking for an exit.” Jason, one of the volunteers, told WSVN.
Orellana was arrested by the police and charged with DUI.
He had a federal immigration detainer placed on him.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is investigating the incident to determine potential charges.
Sea turtle volunteers outraged at drunk driver
Sea turtle hatchlings have long odds of surviving until adulthood.
Roughly one in a thousand will leave to be an adult.
They face threats from predators like birds, crabs, and raccoons who will raid their nests.
“We see between 50 and 80 hatch out of each nest,” sea turtle volunteer Bridgette told WSVN. For every thousand sea turtle hatchlings, only one makes it to adulthood.”
This is the time of year when the sea turtle hatchlings are preparing to leave the nest and make their way to the ocean.
Sea turtle volunteer Holly comes out every night to check on the nest.
“We have this person out here with their vehicle driving through and over turtle nests. It’s absolutely hideous and disgusting. Illegal, indefensible,” Holly said. “These turtles take about two to three days to make their way to the top of the surface and then they emerge. So, if these turtles were at the very top at the surface waiting to come out, and he drove over them, he absolutely could have killed a whole bunch of turtles.”
The sea turtle volunteers said that it was too soon to know the extent of the damage done to the eggs in the nest.
“We’ve seen mamas nesting here up until as recently as last week,” Jason said. “Sometimes two, three, four at a time at different stages of coming ashore, laying eggs and returning, and it takes them a little bit of time to do that. Had he come on a mother nesting it could have been even bad for that reason too.”
“These animals are up against so many man-created issues,” Holly said. “It’s absolutely hideous.”
A drunken joyride on the beach was more costly than Manuel Ortega Orellana ever could have imagined.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
