ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Following Hurricane Debby, Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring volunteers have been assessing the damage to turtle nests on local beaches.
Of the 479 nests that were incubating at the time of the storm, volunteers reported 227 remain staked and are likely still viable, 44 have been restaked and are likely still viable, 169 have been confirmed as complete washouts and 39 nests are yet to be assessed.
Due to Debby, which was a tropical storm while passing AMI, Turtle Watch volunteers were unable to patrol the beaches on Aug. 4-5 but were back on the beaches on Aug. 6.
“We knew we were going to lose some nests, but we were happy to report that we documented many hatched nests on Sunday morning before the storm, and a couple more hatches were reported by the public on the days we were unable to survey,” according to an Aug. 9 press release from Turtle Watch Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella. “There may be even more hatches that we don’t know about, so we are glad that hatchlings got out!”
Volunteers have collected more than 1,000 loose nest stakes, which will be repainted and reused next year.
Mazzarella expressed gratitude to those who placed stakes in piles at the dunes.
“We hope to complete our assessment and restake all viable nests by early next week,” she wrote.
Volunteers are continuing to conduct daily patrols looking for new nesting crawls, documenting new hatches and nest disturbances and conducting an inventory of nests that have hatched or reached an overdue date.
“While we are saddened by the loss of so many nests, we are encouraged by the number of nests still left on the beach,” Mazzarella wrote. “As high as our nesting numbers were this season, we still may have a record number of successful nests before the season is over.”
So far this year, a record number of nests were laid on the Island – 683 – which broke the 2019 record of 543.
If you see a sea turtle or hatchling in distress, please call the Turtle Watch 24/7 hotline at 941-301-8434.
