ANNA MARIA ISLAND – The number of sea turtle disorientations in the past week is cause for concern to Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring volunteers.
“We had eight adult disorientations this week,” Turtle Watch Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella wrote in a May 30 email. “Many of our disorientations were mother turtles that traveled long distances parallel to the water – likely towards a flashlight on the beach. Mother turtles have already spent a lot of energy crawling up the beach and laying their nests without needing to travel so far out of their way on their way back to the Gulf.”
She reminded people not to use lights of any kind on the beach. If lights must be used, she asked that they be red LED lights pointed directly at the ground.
“Our stranding team had an adventure over Memorial Day weekend when a very determined nesting female loggerhead made her way under both a silt fence and a snow fence onto private property and into a swimming pool,” she wrote. “Patrol volunteers and stranding team worked together to corral the turtle to the shallow end and out of the pool. She was rinsed with fresh water and quickly released back into the bay.”
She noted that many properties lost dunes and fences in last year’s hurricanes, leaving pools and construction areas accessible to sea turtles.
“If you believe your property may present a hazard to sea turtles, please contact AMITW at 941-301-8434 to discuss preventative measures that are turtle-proof,” she wrote.
Mazzarella expressed gratitude to Manatee County’s Natural Resource Department for being proactive and deploying hay bales as an organic barricade to prevent adult and hatchling sea turtles from getting trapped in the rock revetments at the south end of the Island. The hay bales were also placed at the Bridge Street beach access to prevent turtles from making their way into the parking lot and road.
Call Turtle Watch at 941-301-8434 or the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Wildlife Alert hotline at 888-404-3922 if you find a turtle (adult or hatchling) in distress or see people disturbing nesting birds, sea turtles or nest sites.
