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Tag: sea turtles

Turtles dig the dark

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Featured, Outdoors, Sea turtles.

Turtle season is on!

From now until Halloween, residents and visitors to Anna Maria Island’s Gulf front and Bay front properties can help threatened nesting and hatching loggerhead and green sea turtles survive by turning off or shielding lights that are visible from the beach and changing light bulbs to turtle-friendly bulbs.

Lighting inspections begin this week, Bradenton Beach Code Enforcement Officer Gail Garneau said, adding that property owners and rental agents should take a proactive approach to monitor their properties for compliance during the nesting sea turtle season, including visiting the beach at night to check the visibility of lights.

The city and Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring have literature available to provide to lodgers.

Beachgoers also should avoid using flashlights or cellphones at night, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) suggests.

Caring beachgoers can make a significant difference in helping sea turtles survive, said Dr. Robbin Trindell, who heads the FWC’s sea turtle management program.

Lights are not the only issue for turtles.

FWC recommends filling in beach holes, which can entrap nesting and hatching turtles.

In addition, all beach furniture and other beach items must be pulled back behind the dune line from sunset to sunrise to avoid nesting and hatching sea turtles from becoming entangled, Garneau said.

Island cities are required to protect imperiled species such as sea turtles and shorebirds because they have received sand in beach renourishment projects, she said, adding, “The city is mandated to ensure compliance with the regulations and take preventative measures.”

Other ways to help sea turtles include properly disposing of fishing line to avoid entanglements, and reporting those that are sick, injured, entangled or dead to the FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922) or #FWC or *FWC on a cellphone.

Purchase a “Helping Sea Turtles Survive” Florida license plate at www.buyaplate.com, which contributes to sea turtle research, rescue and conservation efforts, or donate $5 and receive an FWC sea turtle decal.

You can also adopt a turtle nest from Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring.

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Beach hole

Holes on beach dangerous to people, turtles

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Featured, Outdoors, Sea turtles.

Holes on the beach are no longer accidents waiting to happen.

Two children recently got trapped in a hole that they dug on the beach, Manatee County beach raker Mark Taylor said. A man jumped in, pushed them out of the hole, and got stuck himself before finally making it out.

After trying to fill in the hole, shoveling by hand, Taylor climbed up on the tractor and began using it to fill in the hole.

The tractor got stuck.

Beach hole
Beginning May 1, chairs and other objects must be removed from the beach at night, and holes, which can trap turtles, must be filled in. – Mark Taylor | Submitted

One hole he filled in was so big – deeper than the tractor is tall – that it took another tractor and a four-wheel-drive pickup truck to get the tractor out of the hole. When the holes are as deep as the tractor is tall, the tractor could flip over, he said.

And it’s not only the big ones that are dangerous.

“What would happen if you stepped into a small four-foot-deep hole?” he asked. “You can do as much damage with a small, deep hole as a large one.”

About a third of the people he asks to fill in the holes before they leave the beach actually do, Taylor said. When he comes back the next day in the tractor, he finds that people have sometimes placed chairs around their hole to protect it so they can keep digging in it the next day.

By law, that must stop on May 1, the beginning of the six-month sea turtle nesting and hatching season on the Island.

Chairs and other objects must be removed from the beach at night, and holes, which can trap turtles, must be filled in.

But Suzi Fox, director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, is also worried about people.

Beach hole
Holes and tunnels on the beach are safety hazards for people and wildlife.

Without ordinances in all three Island cities, police can do nothing, even when they spot a dangerous hole in the sand, she said.

Anna Maria is working on an ordinance, Fox said, suggesting that Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach use the same ordinance to save money on attorney fees and make enforcement standardized Island-wide.

“I think the quicker, the better,” Fox said, since turtle season is only a few days away. “The less obstacles turtles have to work around, the more energy they will save for their nesting duties.”

Other ordinances around the state limit shovels to 14 inches, including the handle, she said.

“It’s surprising how much damage you can do with toy shovels,” Taylor said, citing a Panama City ordinance that prohibits metal shovels and imposes a $25 fine for holes bigger than a washtub.

“It used to be young guys on spring break, but this year it’s been more young families with their kids” digging the holes, he said.

This week, Taylor is using the beach rake tractor to smooth out the shoreline to make it easier for nesting turtles to access the beach.

No turtles had nested as of Monday, April 23, Fox said, adding that Turtle Watch volunteers have been scouring the beaches at dawn each morning since April 1.

They have found two snowy plover nests, a threatened species in Florida, and black skimmers – another state threatened species – are starting to nest in Holmes Beach, she said.

Loggerhead turtles, the most common sea turtles on the Island, already are coming ashore to nest on Florida’s east coast, she said, adding that it won’t be long for the west coast girls to arrive here.

Last year’s sea turtle season on the Island was a record, with 488 nests and 25,379 hatchlings that made it to the Gulf of Mexico.

Turtle map

Turtles, birds, need our help

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Outdoors, Sea turtles.

CORTEZ – Everyone who visits the beach can help sea turtles and shorebirds, Suzi Fox, director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, told a packed house at the Florida Maritime Museum on Wednesday, March 21.

Fox and about 100 volunteers monitor the Island’s beaches each morning from May 1 to Oct. 31, following turtle tracks to nests, which are marked with stakes and tape and excavated after hatching to determine how many hatchlings were in the nest.

The stakes are placed far enough apart that an adult mother turtle can fit in between them, because turtles do not notice stakes on turtle or bird nests, she said, adding that when a turtle ventures into a staked shorebird nesting area, Turtle Watch does not stake the turtle nest separately, to avoid disturbing the birds.

Turtle
Suzi Fox, director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, talks to a full house of wildlife lovers at the Florida Maritime Museum. – Cindy Lane | Sun

Fox showed visitors a video of Eliza Ann, a loggerhead sea turtle that was satellite tagged after nesting on Coquina Beach on June 20, 2017. Sponsored by Waterline Marina Resort in the Sea Turtle Conservancy’s Tour de Turtles race, which tracks where and how far turtles swim, Eliza Ann nested four times on local beaches last season, once at Coquina and three times on the north end, she said.

For Fox, that proves the long-held theory that nesting turtles return to the beaches, although not necessarily the exact spot, where they hatched.

Last year, the Island had a record 488 turtle nests, some of which laid eggs on the bay side of the Island. Anna Maria Island is the only island in Florida where sea turtles nest on the bay side, she said.

The biggest problems for turtles on Anna Maria Island are lighting that is not turtle friendly and wish lanterns, Fox said.

In very bright areas, a cage is placed over unhatched nests to trap hatchlings before they can be disoriented away from the water and toward the street by lights. The hatchlings are later released at night, after they have calmed down, Fox said, adding that – like infants – they often calm down after a ride in the car. Bad lighting also can disorient nesting mother turtles.

Information for waterfront homeowners on turtle-friendly lights is available at www.myfwc.com.

Wish lanterns have metal and wood pieces that are slow to biodegrade and can injure turtles and birds, she said, asking people to find another way to celebrate events.

Turtle Watch also participates in a stranding network; turtles can become cold-stunned in winter and need reviving, and fishermen sometimes tangle turtles in their fishing line, cut the line, and bring turtles in for rehabilitation.

Since turtles and birds share the beach, Turtle Watch began monitoring shorebirds in 2006, Fox said, including snowy plovers, least terns, black skimmers and oystercatchers, some of which are imperiled.

As they prepare to nest, fattening themselves up and starting to pair off, Fox will be surveying their numbers in coming weeks.

As bird and turtle seasons approach, the organization will be posting signs on the beaches drawn by schoolchildren warning people about beach etiquette around wildlife, making notecards for sale with kids’ drawings, and working on the “Skip the Straws” and “Darker Skies, Darker Beaches” campaigns to raise awareness about littering and beach lighting.

For more information, visit https://islandturtlewatch.com.

Run for the turtles

Written by Tom Vaught on . Posted in Sports.

Bradenton Beach Code Enforcement Officer Gail Garneau celebrated the end of sea turtle nesting season by running in the 2017 Great Turtle Trail Run on Mackinac Island sporting an Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch shirt. Turtle season ends on Halloween.

Turtle nest excavation

Sea turtles, shorebirds dodge Irma

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Birds, Outdoors, Sea turtles.

Sea turtles and shorebirds have survived hurricanes for centuries, and Hurricane Irma damaged, but did not decimate, Anna Maria Island’s turtle and bird populations.

“We lost stakes to 35 turtle nests, but believe eggs from half of those are still in the ground unmarked,” while the remainder washed out into the Gulf of Mexico, said Suzi Fox, director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring.

More than 50 adult black skimmers and many juveniles are still on the beach near the 5400 block of Gulf Drive in Holmes Beach, she said.

The birds are resting in the wrack (seaweed), she said, which the county will not rake up in that area to avoid disturbing them.

“The birds are so tired (from the storm) that they barely move or sound off as we walk up to conduct our survey count,” she said, requesting that beachgoers remain at least 75 feet from birds to avoid making them flush, which uses precious energy.

Beachgoers also need to be cautious because sea turtle nests that no longer have stakes can hatch at any time.

With 37 known nests left to hatch before turtle season ends on Oct. 31, “We’re still in the game,” she said.

Nearly 24,500 turtle hatchlings emerged from the 488 nests laid on the Island this season, according to Turtle Watch.

Eliza Ann, turtles, love AMI

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Outdoors, Sea turtles.

It’s a record sea turtle nesting season on Anna Maria Island so far this year, but Suzi Fox, director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, seems as thrilled about one particular turtle as she is about the whole gang.

This week marks the midway point in turtle season, May 1 to Oct. 31, and already, more nests have been laid on the Island than in the entire 2016 season, which was the highest on record, according to Turtle Watch.

Since May 1, 459 sea turtles have laid nests on the Island, 24 more than in all of 2016. One of those turtles, loggerhead Eliza Ann, has made Anna Maria Island her beach of choice for four nesting attempts. The latest one last week was witnessed as a successful nesting, not a false crawl, an attempt that is discontinued when a turtle is disoriented by lights or other distractions.Tour de Turtles logo

“I’m so excited,” said Fox, who worked with the Sea Turtle Conservancy and Eliza Ann’s sponsor, Waterline Marina Resort and Beach Club in Holmes Beach, to satellite tag the turtle on June 19 after she nested in Bradenton Beach.

Eliza Ann and seven other satellite-tagged turtles started the Sea Turtle Conservancy’s Tour de Turtle migration marathon this week, which tracks where they swim and the distance they cover. Turtles are scored on how many miles they cover during the three-month race.

Check their progress here and on Facebook.

Loggerhead hatchling

Balloon release harmful to marine wildlife

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Environment, Outdoors.

Balloon release concerns Turtle Watch

BRADENTON BEACH – Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring was notified through an anonymous tip that on Friday, Feb. 10, at sunset, about 50 people walked out of a restaurant and released “dozens of green and yellow balloons over the sea.”

Other callers reported to Turtle Watch Director Suzi Fox that the balloons were delivered to the restaurant around 4:30 p.m. that night in a minivan, she said.

Fox said she is asking city officials to remind business owners that they should not allow balloon releases from their business.

Florida Statute 379.233 makes it unlawful to intentionally release 10 or more balloons in 24 hours; violators can incur a $250 fine. The law calls balloons “a danger and nuisance to the environment, particularly to wildlife and marine animals.”

Exceptions exist for hot air balloons, balloons released by a governmental agency, balloons released indoors and biodegradable balloons, as determined by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

A 2014 attempt to increase the number to 100 balloons failed.

Studies have shown that sea turtles eat plastic, mistaking it for jellyfish, and often die from it.

If anyone finds a sea turtle, bird or other wildlife that was injured by the balloons, please call Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation at 941-778-6324.