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Tag: Anna Maria Island sea turtle nesting season

Second sea turtle nests in daytime

Second sea turtle nests in daytime

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Outdoors, Sea turtles.

ANNA MARIA – More than 100 beachgoers saw an uncommon sight when a nesting loggerhead sea turtle laid her eggs during the day on June 26, the second daytime nesting in a week.

Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring volunteers posted photos and the following on its Facebook page: “What an awesome afternoon in Anna Maria Wednesday! We had a day nester loggerhead! She remained on the beach for approximately one hour. Around 100 people of all ages were very respectful and gave her space. Everyone cheered as she returned to the Gulf!”

“It is not very common to see daytime nesting turtles and we did have two in one week,” Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella wrote in a July 3 email to The Sun. “I do not know what would cause them to nest during the day either. I just know that it is a rare occurrence.”

Mazzarella speculated that with this being a record year for sea turtle nests on the Island, it may just be a matter of numbers or a reaction to disturbances during typical night nesting.

“If you have that many nests, you may see a few daytime nesters,” she wrote. “If a turtle is disturbed and leaves the beach without nesting, she will have to return another time to lay her nest and that might mean nesting at a time that finds her on the beach in the morning or having to come up during the day.”

She reminded visitors to leave the beach to the turtles at night so that people don’t inadvertently disturb a turtle coming ashore or nesting on the beach. Cell phone lights are especially disruptive to sea turtles.

TURTLE TIPS

During sea turtle season, May 1 – Oct. 31, follow these tips to help turtles:

• Turn off lights visible from the beach and close blinds from sundown to sunrise; lights confuse nesting sea turtles and may cause them to go back to sea and drop their eggs in the water, where they won’t hatch. Light can also attract hatchlings away from the water.

• Don’t use flashlights, lanterns or camera flashes on the beach at night.

• Remove all beach chairs and other objects from the sand from sundown to sunrise; they can deter sea turtles from nesting and disorient hatchlings.

• Fill in the holes you dig in the sand before leaving the beach; they can trap nesting and hatching sea turtles, which cannot live long out of the water. You might also accidentally dig into an unmarked nest. To report large holes or other turtle obstacles, call:

• City of Anna Maria code enforcement — 941-708-6130, ext. 111.

• City of Bradenton Beach code enforcement — 941-778-1005, ext. 227.

• City of Holmes Beach code enforcement — 941-778-0331, ext. 260.

• Level sandcastles before leaving the beach; they can block hatchlings from the water.

• Don’t use balloons, wish lanterns or fireworks; they litter the beach and Gulf, and turtles can ingest the debris.

• Do not trim trees and plants that shield the beach from lights.

• Never touch a sea turtle; it’s the law. If you see people disturbing turtles, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Wildlife Alert hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922).

Turtle nesting record broken

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Featured, Outdoors, Sea turtles.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND – A 42-year record for sea turtle nests was shattered on July 2 when Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring volunteers counted 2024’s 546th nest, exceeding the 2019 record of 544 nests for the whole season.

“We broke our all-time annual nest number count this week, and considering turtles should be nesting through late August/early September, we will be breaking it by quite a bit by the end of the nesting season,” Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella wrote in a July 5 email. “We are very excited about this.”

The sea turtle nesting season extends from May 1 to Oct. 31, but began early.

Mazzarella said that Turtle Watch volunteers have been putting in extra hours on the beach and painting nest stakes to mark the new nests.

“We are excited that so many sea turtles have decided to nest on Anna Maria,” she said. “We can thank the conservation efforts of patrollers that protected nests 25 years ago for producing the hatchlings that are coming ashore (as adults) to nest in such high numbers this year.”

Loggerhead sea turtles take 25-35 years to reach maturity.

Turtle Watch recorded the first nest hatch of this season on June 29 in Anna Maria, and, as of July 5, there have been seven nest hatches.

“When they emerge from the sand, baby turtles (hatchlings) follow the brightest horizon to find their way to the water. Artificial lighting that can be seen from the beach can draw hatchlings away from the Gulf and into harm’s way,” according to Mazzarella. “In order to ensure that this incredible number of nests results in a record number of hatchlings making it to the water, we need to do our best to provide a turtle-friendly beach.”

Sea turtle nesting season begins

Sea turtle nesting season begins

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Featured, Outdoors, Sea turtles.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND – The traditional May 1 start of the sea turtle nesting season is now April 15, according to Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, whose volunteers began monitoring the beaches this week for signs of nesting.

Residents and beachgoers can help improve the chances of successful turtle nesting and hatching this season by turning off lights visible from the beach and closing blinds or drapes from sundown to sunrise. Lights confuse nesting sea turtles and may cause them to go back to sea and drop their eggs in the water, where they won’t hatch. Light can also attract hatchlings away from the water.

Don’t use flashlights, lanterns or camera flashes on the beach at night; they can disorient turtles.

Remove all beach chairs and other objects from the sand from sundown to sunrise; they can deter sea turtles from nesting, entrap them and disorient hatchlings.

Fill in the holes you dig in the sand before leaving the beach. They can trap nesting and hatching sea turtles, which cannot live long out of the water. You might also accidentally dig into an unmarked nest. To report large holes or other turtle obstacles, call:

• City of Anna Maria code enforcement – 941-708-6130, ext. 111;

• City of Bradenton Beach code enforcement – 941-778-1005, ext. 227;

• City of Holmes Beach code enforcement – 941-778-0331, ext. 260.

Level sandcastles before leaving the beach; they can block hatchlings from the water.

Don’t use balloons, wish lanterns or fireworks; they litter the beach and Gulf, and turtles can ingest the debris.

Avoid trimming trees and plants that shield the beach from lights.

Never touch a sea turtle; it’s the law. If you see people disturbing turtles, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Wildlife Alert hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922).

A series of Turtle Talks about living with sea turtles is being planned for May at Holmes Beach City Hall, with dates to be announced soon, Turtle Watch Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella said.

Funding for the educational outreach program comes in part from the Suzi L. Fox Adopt-a-Nest Program. For a $125 tax-deductible donation, a plaque dedicated to a person or organization of the donor’s choice is placed on a sea turtle nest that has been laid on an Island beach. When the nest hatches and data is collected, an adoption package is sent to the donor containing a personalized adoption certificate and the location of the nest, the handmade wooden plaque, information about the nest written on the back of the plaque and a letter of appreciation from the volunteers working on the nesting beaches.

“We do not let you know when your adopted nest will hatch. This is protected information that we do not give out,” according to the Turtle Watch website.

Plaques will be placed on the beach between mid-June through August and remain on the nests for the approximately two-month incubation period.