As true fall approaches and summer comes to an end, so does the 2020 sea turtle nesting season. While it has been a strange summer for humans, to say the least, the sea turtles seem to be unbothered.
Sarah Martin, the program leader for The Nature Conservancy Florida Sea Turtle Rescue, said that this year seemed to be a good year for sea turtles to nest. She manages a stretch of land called Blowing Rocks Preserve, a peaceful barrier-island sanctuary to many of South Florida’s creatures, but most notably, three different species of sea turtles.
“I can’t speak for all of Florida, although anecdotally it sounds like it has been a good year, but it’s been a pretty busy one here. This season we’ve had 543 loggerhead sea turtle nests recorded, 213 green sea turtle nests recorded and 16 leatherback sea turtle nests recorded. It’s quite a bit; they’re really tearing up the sand out there,” she laughed.
The large number of nests recorded at Blowing Rocks Preserve is a good sign, as sea turtles are considered a federally endangered species. Sea turtles face unprecedented challenges as climate change progresses, such as habitat destruction, ocean acidification and human pollution. Fortunately, many people in the area are aware of this and support conservation movements.
Martin explained that teaching people to love sea turtles could be one way to expand conservation to the whole ecosystem.
“If you care about sea turtles, you hopefully care about the things that support sea turtles. The ecosystems in South Florida are so special, but so fragile and really need the people that live here and come here to be good stewards to them. Understanding and caring about sea turtles can help people learn to care about the whole ecosystem and start thinking about the South Florida system as a whole; our ocean, our coastal barrier islands or landmass here,” Martin said.
While sea turtles are an endangered species, their biological nesting habits are made to accommodate for natural pressures to hatchlings.
“Nesting female turtles deposit several nests throughout the duration of the season, and those nests contain around 100 eggs each. That’s a survival strategy, to not know every single turtle hatchling is going to make it. In fact, very few of them actually do,” Martin said.
Newly hatched sea turtles face a whole slew of problems in their first few years. Even before they’re hatched, they begin facing challenges. Hurricanes or rough seas could submerge the sand on the beach, drowning out nests deposited too close to the shoreline. When sea turtle nests begin hatching, seabirds swarm the beaches looking for easy prey. Even animals like coyotes and raccoons wander onto the sand for a meal. Sometimes, even other nests could be the problem — a nest dug especially deep might halt a hatchling from reaching the sea. Even if a hatchling manages to reach the water, it faces predators in the open ocean.
A new challenge that has developed over the last few decades is humans.
“Sometimes hatchlings can get flipped over by a beach goer or fall into a hole that someone didn’t re-bury. Even a sand castle that isn’t knocked down at the end of the day can be an issue,” Martin explained.
That is where her team comes in. The Nature Conservancy Sea Turtle Rescue Program is made up of licensed professionals who have special stranding and salvage permits from the state of Florida to go assist sea turtles who may be having issues near the coast. While they understand that everyone wants to help out an animal that might be struggling, Martin emphasized that sea turtles should be left to the professionals.
“We go out and patrol the shore every single day during the nesting season, specifically looking for these little hatchlings that may need an extra boost out to the ocean. Often they’re stuck in the rocks, sometimes in the sand, and sometimes even in the sargassum on shore. The sadder part of it is when we see hatchlings stuck in plastic or trash that they’ve come across, which can be very detrimental. Our beach has been around forever, and so turtles have been stuck on our rocks forever probably, but we think that, because they’re an endangered species, it is important to get out there and give them a hand,” she said.
While it was a good season for sea turtle nests this year, it isn’t a one-and-done deal. Conservation is a year round gig and it takes a community to protect each habitat.
“So many of our beaches in Florida we need to begin examining as whole ecosystems rather than a bit of sand. We depend on all of those elements for our natural resources and these natural areas are important to provide that habitat for sea turtles to nest,” Martin said.
There are other things individuals can do to help conserve sea turtles and hatchlings besides physically handling them. One big step everyone in South Florida can take is examining ecosystems as a whole and voicing their support to protect habitats that support endangered species like sea turtles. If communities come together to fight against challenges, like habitat loss and destruction, ocean acidification and pollution, then sea turtle nesting season could look even brighter in the coming years.
