TURTLE NESTS LAID: 544
(528 loggerhead, 16 green) Record: 685 in 2024
FALSE CRAWLS: 828
(797 loggerhead, 31 green) Record: 831 in 2010
NESTS HATCHED: 424
(409 loggerhead, 15 green) Record: 453 in 2022
HATCHLINGS PRODUCED: 30,899
(29,674 loggerhead, 1,225 green) Record: 35,850 in 2022
NEST DISORIENTATIONS: 151
(148 loggerhead, 3 green)
ADULT DISORIENTATIONS: 30
(28 loggerhead, 2 green)
Source: Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Sea turtle nesting season comes to an early close due to the remaining nests being washed out by Hurricane Helene.
“We had eight nests left prior to Hurricane Helene and it’s likely that all eight washed out in the storm,” Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella wrote in an email. “I was able to conduct a survey on the beach on Wednesday, Oct. 2 from Bean Point down to the Beach House restaurant; however was unable to traverse the beach any further. Six of the eight remaining nests were south of the Beach House, so I can only presume that they washed out due to the extent of the damage on that part of the Island.”
She issued the following nesting numbers for the 2024 nesting season:
4/15/2024 – 9/24/2024
Total nests: 685
Total false crawls: 835
Hatched nests: 303
Hatchlings produced: 20,557
Adult disorientations: 36
Hatchling disorientations: 54
Nests remaining on the beach: 0
“We will be spending the next few months reviewing the data for accuracy so that we can report our final numbers to FWC and Manatee County,” she wrote. “We are grateful to our volunteers and community members who helped us prepare for the storm such that our equipment and UTVs were safe during the storm. We are now focusing on helping our volunteers, assisting in beach cleanups, and doing what we can for the community of AMI.”
Turtle Watch’s major fundraiser, Suzi Fox Turtle Watch Wednesday scheduled for Oct. 23 at Hurricane Hank’s, has been postponed and a new date will be announced.
“Our hearts go out to our sponsors and volunteers that have sustained damage from the storm,” Mazzarella said. “We will let you know more when the Island is further along with cleanup efforts and rebuilding.”
Turtle nests laid: 685 (Previous record: 543 in 2019)
False crawls: 835 (Previous record: 831 in 2010)
Nests hatched: 302 (Record: 453 in 2022)
Hatchlings produced: 20,748 (Record: 35,850 in 2022)
Hatchling disorientations: 55
Adult disorientations: 36
Nests remaining on beach: 17
Source: Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – As the sea turtle nesting season slows down, Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring volunteers continue excavating hatched nests on local beaches.
High surf caused by Hurricane Francine in the western Gulf of Mexico inundated several nests with salt water, which will likely impact their success, but about half the remaining nests are still high and dry.
Several upcoming events will support the non-profit group’s mission of protecting sea turtles.
Painting with a Purpose will raise funds on Sunday, Sept. 22 from 3-5 p.m. at Slicker’s Eatery, 12012 Cortez Road W. The cost is $75 per person and includes painting with a local artist, two glasses of wine and flatbread appetizers. No painting experience is necessary. Seating is limited. Sign up at https://paintingwithatwist.com/studio/bradenton or call 941-795-7928.
The Suzi L. Fox Adopt a Nest Program is open for 2025 adoptions. Each nest adoption includes a certificate of adoption, notification of the plaque placement and the location of your nest. The plaque is mailed to you after the nest has hatched. Next year there are new options. With the Special Request Adopt a Nest, Turtle Watch will offer the ability to choose the general location of the nest and date that the plaque will be posted on the beach, as well as offering a photo of the plaque when placed and notification after the nest has hatched.
“We thank the 259 adoptees that participated in our Suzi L. Fox Adopt a Nest program in 2024. The proceeds from these nest adoptions go towards all the outreach programs and materials we produce to educate visitors and locals about sea turtles and how they can conserve and protect their island habitat,” according to a release from Turtle Watch.
For more information, visit https://islandturtlewatch.com/get-involved/adopt-a-nest/
Turtle Watch Wednesday will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 23 from 4-6 p.m. at Hurricane Hanks, 5346 Gulf Drive in Holmes Beach. The free event features live and silent auctions and live music. VIP tickets are available for $80 per person and include reserved seating, a swag bag and event T-shirt. Call Barbara for reservations at 404-275-9422.
A photo calendar – Anna Maria Life: Through the Lens of Angie Blunt 2025 – is available at the following Island locations: Lazy Turtle, Anna Maria Island Historical Society, Anna Maria Life Vacation Rentals, Ginny’s & Jane E’s, The Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce and Sea-renity Beach Spa & Bou-tiki, as well as online.
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Despite the loss of 200 loggerhead sea turtle nests due to flooding caused by Debby, which passed by Anna Maria Island as a tropical storm on Aug. 4-5, it has been a successful nesting year so far with numbers surpassing those of 2023, and, in some cases, record high numbers.
“It’s been a busy week with a lot of nest excavations – where we count the eggs in the nest to see how well the nest did after it hatched or is overdue,” Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella wrote in an Aug. 30 email. “We’ve had a few hatches this week and we excavate hatched nests three days after the hatch is observed – to allow all the hatchlings to emerge from the nest on their own. However, due to the Tropical Storm Debby, most of our excavations continue to be 70-day (overdue nest) excavations.”
Mazzarella wrote that 135 nests are still incubating on Island beaches.
With a total nest count of 685, there were 200 complete washouts of nests this year, compared to 82 washouts in 2023, when 404 nests were produced.
A new loggerhead nest was found on the Island last week, and volunteers continue to look for new nests and false crawls as well as checking the remaining nests until they hatch and are excavated.
LIGHTING IMPROVEMENTS
Florida Power & Light (FPL) has started installing shields on several streetlights along Gulf Drive in Bradenton Beach. The streetlights could be seen from the beach, and may have led to the death of an adult female sea turtle that nested nearby, wandered into the road and was struck by a car in June.
“These shields will direct the light onto the road and make the lights less visible from the beach, creating a more turtle-friendly environment and helping save sea turtle hatchlings,” Mazzarella wrote. “We thank FPL, City of Bradenton Beach, Manatee County and FWC for their help in making this possible.”
BRADENTON BEACH – The nest laid by a loggerhead sea turtle that was struck and killed by a car on Gulf Drive in June hatched earlier this week, producing 84 hatchlings.
“When we conducted the nest excavation, we found one live hatchling in the nest, which was released immediately,” Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella wrote in an Aug. 23 email.
Mazzarella said it was a great hatch success and is hopeful that the turtle’s legacy will continue.
“At this nest, which was situated in the picnic area of Coquina Beach near lifeguard tower 6, we placed a dedication plaque to let people know how, thanks to the awareness this turtle brought about lighting issues, many more turtles were saved from her fate,” she wrote.
After her death, the streetlights that led the turtle into the road were turned off until a turtle-safe solution could be put in their place.
MANY NEST EXCAVATIONS
There have been no new crawls this week, but Mazzarella said they are possible at this time of year.
“What we have been doing a lot of is nest excavations on nests that should’ve hatched around the time of Tropical Storm Debby,” she wrote. “When nests reach 70 days, they are considered overdue and we try our best to do an inventory on them. This is sometimes a difficult task because we don’t know exactly where the nest is without the benefit of a depression from a hatch.”
Volunteers must dig the area within the nest stakes to find the nest chamber. Sometimes, Turtle Watch volunteers may find unhatched eggs that have stopped developing or hatched shells indicating that a hatch occurred but went unnoticed due to inundation from the storm.
“The good news is that we are finding that many of these nests did indeed hatch,” she wrote. “This is reflected in the increase in hatched nest numbers over last week.”
HATCHLING RESCUE
Turtle Watch volunteer Kathy Noonan found and rescued two loggerhead hatchlings that had fallen into a hole left on the beach.
“One of the many hazards we educate the public about is holes dug in the sand,” Mazzarella wrote. “These holes can entrap hatchlings on their way to the water and, unless they are found by someone, they may perish in the hole from dehydration or be picked up by a predator.”
With the loss of more than 180 nests to Tropical Storm Debby, it is even more important to make sure the remaining hatchlings make it to the Gulf, she said, reminding beachgoers to fill in holes in the sand before leaving the beach for the day.
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring has completed a post-storm assessment of the turtle nests remaining on the beach after what was then Tropical Storm Debby passed by, and they are still hopeful for a near-record season.
The final tally was 479 nests still incubating on the beach at the time of the storm. Of the total 683 nests that were laid, 202 had already hatched. Turtle Watch volunteers documented 182 nests washed out, and 68 nests that are possibly still viable were restaked, according to Turtle Watch Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella in an Aug. 17 email.
“Prior to the storm, we secured the nest stakes and made sure that all nests were marked with a special GPS that we received funding for from an anonymous donor,” Mazzarella wrote. “The GPS documented the location of the nest with high accuracy which makes it very easy to accurately refind and repost nests that lost their stakes in the storm. After the storm passed, we picked up approximately 1,000 nest stakes that were pulled out from the heavy surf.”
Nest inventories are conducted three days after a hatch. Turtle Watch volunteers count the eggs inside the nest to determine the hatch success.
“Having missed two days of patrol, on 8/7 we had 27 inventories to complete – 19 were completed and eight were unable to be found,” Mazzarella wrote. “We used the new GPS’s to locate nests and determine which ones were washouts and which ones could be reposted.”
In the past week, Turtle Watch documented one new nest and three false crawls, along with 31 nest hatches.
“We are hopeful that we will still have a near record season, with 255 nests still incubating on the beach, combined with the 202 nests that have already hatched, we will have more nests than last year (2023 had 404 nests)” she wrote. “However, to make this a successful season, we will need the help of the public and visitors to ensure that hatchlings make it safely into the Gulf.”
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.
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – In advance of Hurricane Debby, Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring volunteers secured stakes at the 682 nests on the Island.
“Thanks to a generous anonymous donor, we have been using a special GPS to mark our nests, which means that if the nest loses stakes, we will be able to repost the nest in nearly the exact location it was originally posted,” Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella said.
Volunteers will be documenting any overwash or inundation that occurs as they check every nest after the storm.
“Our FWC Marine Turtle Permit gives us permission to work with and make informed decisions about sea turtle nests. However, it does not allow us to relocate nests or excavate nests early due to storms,” she said.
“These eggs that are outside the nest are likely already compromised and will not hatch, but with your report, we confirm and document the loss,” Mazzarella said. “Eggs that are exposed but remain in the nest are safest if they are not moved. The important thing to remember is that each nesting female deposits several nests in the season, essentially ensuring that at least some of her eggs will survive.”
If you find eggs that are washing out, or uprooted stakes, please note the number on the stakes and report it to Turtle Watch at 941-301-8434.
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).
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.”
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.
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring volunteers discovered that multiple sea turtle nests were disturbed over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
“I don’t think it was anything malicious,” Turtle Watch Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella said. “We have had disturbances to nests before, but this weekend was exceptional. I think this was people not realizing and not giving the nests space. I want to make people aware that they need to respect posted nest areas.”
Mazzarella said that issues during the holiday included people walking across nests, knocking over stakes, tearing marker tape, digging in the sand close to nests and planting tents in nesting areas.
Turtle nests on local beaches are clearly marked with yellow numbered stakes and pink caution tape.
“We recommend that people keep their distance from nests, report anyone that is observed disturbing a nest to local law enforcement, and also call 941-301-8434 to report a nest that has not been marked,” Turtle Watch posted on their Facebook page.
Turtle nesting season runs from May through October.
Marine turtles are protected under the Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 and Florida’s Marine Turtle Protection Act.
“Florida Statutes restrict the take, possession, disturbance, mutilation, destruction, selling, transference, molestation and harassment of marine turtles, nests or eggs,” according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Island sea turtles are getting off to an early start as the first nest of the season on the Gulf Coast of Florida has appeared on Anna Maria Island.
“AMITW got a big surprise early this morning, finding the first loggerhead nest of the season,” Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella wrote in an April 18 statement.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) told Mazzarella that the AMI nest was the first found on the state’s west coast. She said it is likely the earliest nest in the history of Turtle Watch.
Turtle season officially begins on May 1 and runs through Oct. 31. Turtle Watch volunteers started to patrol on April 15 at the directive of the FWC. Days later, volunteers found the crawl.
“We are excited to start the nesting season on Anna Maria Island and look forward to a productive season protecting nests and educating the public,” said Mazzarella, who began her new job at Turtle Watch this month.
In 2022, two records were broken by local loggerhead sea turtles. The number of hatched nests in September reached 453, edging out the 2018 record of 447, and a record 35,850 hatchlings exceeded the prior record of 35,788 set in 2018.
