St. George Island’s Dr. Julian G. Bruce State Park has again been voted one of the Top 10 Beaches in the U.S., according to Dr. Stephen Leatherman’s annual nationwide ranking of beaches.
The St. George Island State Park Beach remains at the #3 spot for 2015 – a position it has maintained since 2013. This is the fifth year that the nine-mile beach park located at the east end of St. George Island has made Dr. Leatherman’s top 10 list. The St. George Island State Park Beach is one of three Florida beaches to make the 2015 list.
Dr. Stephen Leatherman, (a.k.a. Dr. Beach) is a professor and director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University. He is considered a world authority on coastal storm impacts, beach erosion and has been ranking the nation’s beaches since 1991. The doctor uses 50 criteria to select his spots, including water quality, safety, available activities and environmental factors.
About the St. George Island ranking, Dr. Leatherman says, “The Florida panhandle beaches are known for their powdery, super white sands. The sand here is squeaky clean (just rub your feet on the sand and hear it squeak). The State Park beach is on the eastern end of the island. Pathways take you across the “walking” dunes to the bayside. Stingrays are sometimes resting in the shallow waters so shuffle your feet when entering. Birding and fishing are very popular activities.”
The continued Top 10 beach ranking is good news for Josh Hodson, St. George Island State Park Manager. “This is a testament to our great beaches and also to the staff and volunteers here,” he said. According to Hodson, park attendance has increased by approximately 10 percent each year since the island park has made Dr. Leatherman’s list.  In 2014, park attendance topped 225,000, Hodson said.
In addition to attracting beach visitors, St. George Island beaches are also home to some threatened and endangered species, including the endangered loggerhead sea turtles which arrive annually at this time of year to nest on the beach.
“We’ve already received our first few loggerhead nests so please do not disturb any marked areas,” Hodson cautions.
Visitors interested in learning about sea turtle nesting can attend 2 pm turtle orientation meetings on Wednesdays during June at the Apalachicola National Estaurine Research Reserve (ANERR) Visitor Center in Eastpoint. The presentations are hosted by the SGI Turtle Volunteer and the ANERR. Common sense turtle tips include removing all beach chairs and umbrellas at the end of the day and use red filtered flashlights when walking on the beach at night to avoid disorienting hatchlings.
 The complete top 10 Beach List for 2015 is as follows:
