MAKE WAY FOR TURTLES

Sea Turtle Nesting Season is Here

By Jenny Diamond

Summer is officially here! School is out, the days are hot, the Gulf water is warm and sea turtle nesting season is here! Sea turtle nesting season on the Gulf Coast occurs from May to October.

Female sea turtles come ashore at night, dragging themselves along the sand and digging deep nesting chambers with their back flippers, laying roughly 100 eggs before covering the nest and returning to the water. Our area sees four species of sea turtles: green, leatherback, Kemp’s Ridley and loggerhead, which is the most common species of sea turtle along the Florida Panhandle. In 2024, of the 30 turtle nests laid on county land, 29 were laid by loggerheads.

Occasionally, a turtle will nest during the day, with some species like the small Kemp's Ridley almost exclusively nesting during species that nest along the Gulf do so at night; thus dedicated staff and volunteers with the Escambia County Natural Resources Management division, Perdido Key State Park and Gulf Islands National Seashore patrol the shoreline at sunrise each morning to spot tracks and identify and mark nests.

After an incubation period of roughly 60 days, hatchlings emerge from their eggs and make a daunting climb to the surface from the nest chamber and then ideally scramble toward the Gulf, where they will spend the first few years of their lives in offshore sargassum patches that provide food, warmth and protection from predators.

In addition to morning beach patrols, there are other volunteer-led initiatives to support public education about turtle safety. Volunteers walk the Pensacola Beach Pier daily, working with local anglers, pier staff and Pensacola Beach lifeguards to ensure proper protocols are followed if a turtle is hooked from the fishing pier.

Turtles come to the pier because they are attracted by the fisherman’s bait, but end up getting accidentally hooked in many cases. Additionally, when a turtle washes ashore in what is referred to as “stranding,” it is typically because the turtle has ingested plastic, hooks, filament or other types of hazardous material making it difficult for the turtle to eat and swim regularly.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) standards indicate that any turtle that is hooked or stranded should receive medical attention, even if it is not suffering from an obvious injury like a boat strike. The closest sea turtle hospital and rehabilitation facility is the Gulfarium’s C.A.R.E. Center located in Destin, and if the center is at capacity, then turtles must be transported to the Gulf World Marine Institute in Panama City Beach.

When turtles are hooked or stranded, pier staff reach out to the county or to Gulf Coast Turtle Watch (GCTW), a 501(c)(3) NFP that was established in early 2024. GCTW works with permitted volunteers to transport hooked or stranded turtles to the C.A.R.E. Center or Marine Institute.

Safely and comfortably transporting a turtle that might weigh several hundred pounds is no easy feat, and volunteers often have to utilize their personal vehicles. Thus, one of the GCTW’s first initiatives was to raise funds to purchase a transport van big enough to easily transport turtles. Thanks, in part, to a recently awarded $20,000 environmental grant from Florida Power and Light, the vehicle has been purchased and is currently being prepped for action for the busy summer season.

In addition to following safety protocols while fishing and boating, the public can do their part to help protect sea turtles by following the ‘Leave No Trace’ and ‘Clean, Dark, Flat’ initiatives. Turtles are cumbersome on land and can easily become stuck if they fall into a hole or encounter beach debris, so it is important that visitors knock down any sand structures, fill in any holes, and remove chairs, canopies, umbrellas, toys or trash at the end of each day.

Turtles can also be disoriented by artificial lighting, which can range from lights from homes, businesses and passing cars to flashlights or phone lights on the beach at night. Both nesting mothers and hatchlings instinctively follow moonlight to lead them to the water, but when disoriented, a nesting mother may crawl away from the ocean after laying her eggs and suffer from exposure. Hatchlings can additionally suffer from lighting disorientation and crawl away from the water, which puts them at greater risk of death from exposure, as well as predation from birds or ghost crabs.

As of 2018, a Barrier Island Lighting Ordinance requires all water-facing residential and business structures to use turtle-friendly lighting practices: closing blinds and keeping outdoor lights shielded at night and using low-wavelength amber or ‘Wildlife Friendly’ bulbs available from local retailers for outside lighting.

For more information on nesting sea turtles, visit myfwc.com.