Sea Turtle Nesting Not Quite Over

SARASOTA, FL — Sea turtle nesting season’s official end date has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean the turtles care to pay attention to the calendar. That’s according to officials at Sarasota’s Mote Marine Laboratory, who are warning folks that unhatched nests may still be found on some area beaches.

Mote officials say three nests remain unhatched on beaches from Longboat Key to Venice. Sea turtle nesting season typically lasts from May 1 until Oct. 31.

“Some turtle nests are still waiting to hatch, so please stay vigilant on the beaches and keep the beaches turtle friendly,” Kristen Mazzarella, senior biologist with Mote’s Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program, said in a statement. “We expect these nests to hatch sometime in mid-November.”

Mote’s Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program coordinates conservation efforts on behalf of endangered sea turtles across 35 miles of beaches in Sarasota County. The marine has done this for the past 35 years.

Mote has been collecting data related to sea turtles since it began monitoring the beaches all those decades ago. The data are “particularly important because sea turtles are long-lived species,” Mote explained in a media release. “It takes about 30 years for hatchlings born on our beaches to return to nest as adults.”

Numbers for this year’s hatching season make take another month to finalize. Preliminary numbers, however, show a sizable increase in total nests. Preliminary counts show 4,525 loggerhead sea turtle nests. There were also nine green sea turtle nests and one nest that remains undetermined. The total number of nests recorded by Mote in 2015 was 2,475.

“This was an incredible year for sea turtle nests,” Mazzarella said. “This year we saw more nests than last year, which was also a record breaking year. Turtles take about 30 years to sexually mature and produce eggs, and we hope the reason we are seeing this increase is because the turtles Mote started to monitor 30 years ago are now old enough to come back and lay their eggs.”

In Florida, all sea turtles are protected by state and federal laws. It is illegal for people to harass, harm or take sea turtles and their eggs. The state is home to five different species: loggerhead, Kemp’s Ridley, hawksbill, leatherback and green.

To find out more about loggerhead sea turtles in Florida, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission online. For advice on protecting sea turtles on Gulf Coast beaches, check out this related story.

Anyone who happens to encounter a sick, stranded or injured sea turtle in Manatee or Sarasota county waters is asked to call Mote Marine Laboratory’s Stranding Investigations Program at 941-988-0212. Sightings outside of those two counties should be reported to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 888-404-FWCC (3922).

Anyone who sees people tampering with sea turtle nests or harassing sea turtles is asked to call FWC, local law enforcement or Mote’s Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program at 941-388-4331.

Photo courtesy of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission