A trip to the beach should be fun and care free. But leaving common sense at home can be deadly. Millions of visitors trip to SoWal every year to enjoy our beautiful beaches, and we take beach safety seriously.
One of the first things to know about Walton County beaches is the excellent beach flag system we have. There is a flag pole in sight from nearly every foot of beach in SoWal.
Text "flag" to 31279 for regular surf condition alerts.
Gulf World Marine Institute (GWMI) has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Disney Conservation Fund after working in conjunction with New England Aquarium to care for 50 cold stunned sea turtles. The grant will help offset the costs of the rehabilitation process for the New England cold stunned sea turtles that have since been medically cleared and released into the Gulf of Mexico.
Of course we all love the beach but we also love the REAL FLorida with swamps and creeks, backwoods, native plants and wildlife. We also love learning all about it and our favorite place is just up the road in Freeport. The E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center recently announced summer hours and camps for kids this Summer. Here is the latest Biophilia news.
The Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance (CBA) of Northwest Florida State College announces the summer session of its award winning eco-tourism initiative, Discover Roads Less Traveled: Eco-Adventures of Walton County. Voted Best Outdoor Adventure in the 2015 Perfect in South Walton- Best of the Best list, the summer tour line-up falls nothing short. Don’t miss the chance to get outdoors this summer and explore!
The Gulf World Marine Institute stranding team recently released a fully rehabilitated loggerhead sea turtle into the Gulf of Mexico in Panama City Beach. The stranded sea turtle was rescued in March of this year and was found to be emaciated and lethargic. After a few months of rehabilitation at Gulf World Marine Institute the sea turtle was medically cleared and then released back into the Gulf on June 24, 2015, along with a few human friends standing by for support.
March 31, 2015 by SoWal Staff
The documentary we have been working on for the last year and a half, Coastal Dune Lakes: Jewels of Florida’s Emerald Coast, is finished and will be shown on Public Television stations in April across Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, then all across the United States in July.
Producer/cinematographer: Elam Stoltzfus
January 8, 2015 by Nic Stoltzfus
A short story about turtles along the coastal region by the dune lakes. Tips and reminders about turtle interaction.
Sponsored by St. Joe Community Foundation
Produced by Live Oak Production Group
Producer/cinematographer: Elam Stoltzfus
Script: Nic Stoltzfus
Editor/additional music: Joey Dickinson
Music Score: Eric Schrontenboer
www.CoastalDuneLakes.org
The next day we woke up around six in the morning and headed down to Nelson Bay, roughly a 45-minute drive south from the farmhouse. Here we planned to take a helicopter and fly over the lakes to get some aerial shots.
It was a sweltering summer day with little to no cloud coverage, and we were filming a tour of South Walton with the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance. The tour started in Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, where Park Services Specialist Jeff Talbert and Dr. Sarah Schindele pointed out a plethora of unique plants, explaining the ecology of the park, as well as the steps that are taken to maintain such a distinct and fragile natural area.
This past week my dad showed his latest film, The Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition: Everglades to Okefenokee, at the Martin Theatre in Historic Panama City.
