Hope for Hatchlings

The odds are against them, but work happening right now may give sea turtles a fighting chance

Sea turtle nesting season is in full swing, and as it enters its peak in June and July, enthusiasts, environmentalists and scientists are eagerly awaiting the 2024 season’s numbers.

Last year, turtle watchers were thrilled at the record total of 212,195 nests laid by the three main species that nest on Florida shores: loggerhead, green and leatherback turtles.

Loggerhead and green turtles are listed as threatened. Leatherbacks are endangered.

In the wake of that record year, Florida Weekly talked to scientists and other state experts to see the projections for the 2024 season. They caution that it’s still early.

Several factors impact nesting, including heat, rainfall, hurricanes, predators and light pollution.

“I don’t have a crystal ball, said Simona Ceriani, sea turtle nesting program coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Mother Nature doesn’t reveal what’s in store.

She said it’s clear the nesting record won’t be matched or surpassed this year.

Florida has a new app that allows nests to be tracked in real-time.

However, “based on what we’re seeing so far, it looks like the loggerheads are having a good season. The preliminary numbers as of the end of May are similar to what we had in 2022. And 2022 was a very good year. It wasn’t a record year, but it was very good.”

She said it also looks like the Leatherbacks will have a good year. The numbers are better than last year, “which is good news because leatherbacks have been declining overall in the North and West Atlantic,” she said.

For green turtles, “we were all wondering what was going to happen, and they have been having a very slow start,” Ceriani said. Green turtles laid 76,543 nests in 2023, an incredible 106% nesting increase over the previous year, which was why the state reached those record numbers. Now, they may return to their typical nesting cycle of one year high and one year low.

Ceriani said that Florida already had over 2,000 green turtle nests by the end of May last year. “And now we have 60.”

As of May 31/Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Something new this year: more Kemp’s Ridley turtle nests are showing up. Scientists counted 13 at the end of May, compared to 10 last year. Kemp’s Ridleys are the most critically endangered species of sea turtles.

The success of a season doesn’t necessarily depend on how many nests are laid. It depends on how many of those nests actually hatch. Then, it depends on how many hatchlings survive the trek to the sea. It’s estimated that only 1 in 1,000 will reach maturity — at about 20 to 30 years old.

Ceriani said the reproductive success rate for the nests can vary significantly from year to year because of the many factors that impact nesting.

Every nest is inventoried. The information is then submitted to the state. But with thousands of nests, Ceriani said compiling data can get complicated.

Now, Florida has a new sea turtle nesting app that allows people to inventory nests in real time. Ceriani said it will help standardize the information, “Things are going to get much better.”

Only 1 in 1,000 hatchlings will reach maturity. FWC / COURTESY PHOTO

One concern is the possible impacts of this year’s record hurricane forecasts.

“Even just one hurricane that hits in the right time of the year, meaning when there are lots of nests that are incubating, it’s going to be a very large loss for hatchling production,” Ceriani said. If they hit later in the year, after most of the nests have hatched, there is less of a loss.

“Sea turtles have been dealing with hurricanes for hundreds of millions of years,” said Justin Perrault, vice president of research at Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach in northern Palm Beach County. “But the frequency and intensity is kind of what’s changing here and something that they may not be able to adapt to as well. So, it’s always something that we watch for, but it’s hard to kind of say anything at this point.”

Local turtle watchers from across Florida gather their data on turtle success rates. Florida Weekly checked in to see how the nesting season is going this year and compare it to last year’s records. The 2024 numbers provided are from the end of May to early June.

Simona Ceriani is the sea turtle nesting program coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. COURTESY PHOTO

Loggerhead Marinelife Center

This nine-and-a-half-mile stretch of beach is one of the most densely nested loggerhead beaches in the Western hemisphere.

“Sea turtles have been dealing with hurricanes for hundreds of millions of years. But the frequency and intensity is kind of what’s changing here and something that they may not be able to adapt to as well.” — Justin Perrault, vice president of research at Loggerhead Marinelife Center

It saw a record 25,018 nests in 2023. Of those, 15,670 were loggerheads.

However, Perrault said the reproductive success rate for loggerheads was 48%, the fourth lowest on record. The leatherback success rate was 32%, the second lowest on record, and the green turtle success rate was 67%, the fourth-lowest on record.

He said it doesn’t look like there will be another record season at this early stage.

“The loggerheads started pretty strong.” Based on the numbers, “my guess is, it’ll be a top-five year for them.” He said that leatherbacks are also doing well and will have a top-ten nesting year. “The green turtles? I have no idea. We only have four nests on our beaches so far,” Perrault said. “And, you know, that could indicate that we’re going to have a low year. But there’s other years where we’ve had a lot of green turtles that have started similarly to now. So, it’s really impossible to say what they’re going to do.”

As of May 30, Loggerhead Marinelife had 3,127 loggerheads, 205 leatherbacks and four green turtles.

Heat is a significant factor in determining reproductive success rate. The year started relatively cool, but now the heat has set in. Nests have been incubating hotter last year and this year than in the past. The lethal limit for eggs to survive in the nest is about 91.4 to 93.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Beyond that, the embryos die. They’re literally cooking, he said. Some studies suggest that if the hatchlings survive these high temperatures, they lead to developmental abnormalities.

By the end of May, 60 green sea turtles have laid nests in Florida. FWC / COURTESY PHOTO

The organizations we spoke with all have temperature monitors in their nests.

Until recently, there hasn’t been a lot of rain. Dryness is another extreme that is bad for sea turtle nesting, Perrault said. Rainfall can cool the sand. “The embryos are drinking water while they’re in the egg.” When it gets very dry no water can diffuse through the egg. The eggs shrivel and cave in. “The embryo eventually essentially dehydrates,” Perrault said.

He said that the sand was so dry that turtles trying to build nests earlier in the season couldn’t hold their structures.

Perrault added another factor to the heat: the warmer the nests, the more females are hatched. Sex is determined by how hot the sand is while turtles are incubating. The hotter it is, the more females will hatch, and the cooler parts of the nests will produce males.

However, several research papers in the late 1980s already showed 90% feminization in Florida, Ceriani said. “So, it’s not new.” While it is a concerning issue that needs continued exploration, she said current studies have been short-duration or focus on only one beach. She’s worried about sounding an alarm when it isn’t supported by enough data.

Temperatures beyond 93.2 degrees can be deadly for sea turtle nests. FWC / COURTESY PHOTO

If there is a tipping point, where is it? She asked. If the issue is sensationalized, “then it will prompt pressure from the public to manipulate nests and all of that,” she said. “And I see it as a hands-off policy as much as possible.”

Gumbo Limbo Nature Center

David Anderson, sea turtle conservation coordinator, monitors the five miles of beaches at the center in Boca Raton.

Last year, cumulatively, they had a record season with 1,394 nests, including 1,038 loggerheads. “It was the highest number of nests we had ever had here in Boca Raton” since monitoring of the beaches started in 1987, he said.

The overall reproductive success was an average of 69%. That’s been the average for the last few years, but “going back over through all of our data over 20 years of documenting and reporting the hatch success of our nests, it has been a gradual decline in hatch success over time.”

Gumbo Limbo had 284 loggerhead nests, 19 leatherback nests and zero green nests as of the beginning of June. Anderson thinks it will be an average to above-average year for loggerheads.

Beach lighting is a severe issue affecting hatchling survival.

Last year, Anderson saw hundreds to thousands of hatchlings lost because they were confused and headed toward artificial light instead of the ocean. Most local ordinances require beachfront properties to turn off their lights or replace them with amber or red lights that don’t confuse the hatchlings as much.

Storms or erosion may remove beachfront properties and vegetation, so the turtles move toward the exposed buildings and streetlights behind them.

“It’s always a problem,” Anderson said. “So, I conduct monthly nighttime lighting surveys on our beach. And I approach condominiums and beachfront properties about problematic lighting and help them come up with solutions to minimize the impact on sea turtles and wildlife and even human health.” It may require retrofitting your lights to something more wildlife friendly, he said.

Last year, in Collier County, an adult turtle trekked across a Naples beach into a nearby parking lot to find a place to nest. In another instance, a loggerhead nest hatched on Vanderbilt Beach, and the hatchlings wandered to Vanderbilt Beach Road, where they were run over by passing vehicles, said Mary Toro, the environmental specialist who oversees 23.7 miles of beaches for the Collier County Parks and Recreation Division.

“Last year was terrible,” she said. She called it the “worst lighting situation ever since the 80s.”

“We’ve all been working really well with code enforcement from Collier County, Naples and Marco Island,” Toro said. On Vanderbilt Beach, they’ve been knocking on doors or leaving brochures with information by the doors.

Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation

Last year, the foundation had 1,201 nests, including 299 on Captiva and 902 on Sanibel.

All the nests on Captiva were loggerheads. The nests on Sanibel included 878 loggerheads and 24 green turtles.

The hatch success rate for 2023 was extremely low, at 10% for Captiva. For Sanibel, it was also low at 29% for the east end of the island and 35% on the west end.

“You never really know what the season is going to hold,” said Kelly Sloan, sea turtle program coordinator for the foundation. She said they are expecting a lower number of nests this year. At the beginning of June, there were 68 loggerhead nests on Captiva and 223 on Sanibel, with one leatherback nest on Sanibel. The leatherback was an unexpected and pleasant surprise, she said. It was the first nest of the season overall and the first leatherback that had nested there for several years.

One issue the islands have is predators, mainly coyotes. “Last year, we had our highest predation rate by far on Sanibel and Captiva,” Sloan said. “About 44% of the nests were depredated. And that doesn’t mean that all the eggs were eaten from every one of those nests, but it just means they were hit at least once by a coyote.”

They’ve been brainstorming with FWC and other island partners. There are several strategies, one being removal, “but they’re all so highly controversial.”

The foundation is experimenting with a unique weapon to fight the coyotes: habanero pepper. They’re sprinkling the spicy pepper on top of the nests to see if that might discourage the coyotes from digging into them. They’re also trying new cages with heavy rebar for some nests while others have screens.

Lee County-Turtle Time

According to Turtle Time’s Eve Haverfield, as of June 7, the area from the northern tip of Fort Myers Beach to the Lee/Collier County line had 116 nests.

• Fort Myers Beach: 46 nests

• Bonita Beach: 63 nests

• Big Hickory Island: 4 nests

• Bunche Beach: 3 nests

Keewaydin Island, Collier County

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida monitors turtle nesting on eight-mile-long Keewaydin Island, which was cut in two by Hurricane Ian in 2022.

Kathy Worley, director of the conservancy’s environmental science department, said the island had 526 nests last year, including 519 loggerheads and seven greens.

“We had a good year overall last year, about 80% hatching success for both,” she said. “Not to say all of them made it to the Gulf.” Predators took some, mainly coyotes.

She said every year is different. As of June 3, they had 147 nests — all loggerheads.

“What we tend to look at is the trend over time,” she said. This year, they expect fewer nests. “If one number is up, one number down, it doesn’t mean anything.” In the ocean, predators, disease, red tide and other factors affect them, she said. “The trend over 40 years has been up.”

Collier County Parks and Recreation Division

The county monitors another 23.7 miles of beaches that don’t include Keewaydin Island. Mary Toro, an environmental specialist, oversees Barefoot, Vanderbilt, Park Shore, Naples, Marco Island and others.

Last year, there were 1,272 nests on those five main beaches, all loggerheads except for 18 greens.

The reproductive, or hatch success rate was:

• Barefoot 82%

• Vanderbilt 86%

• Park Shore 86%

• City of Naples 84%

• Marco Island 75%

“I think it’s going to be a lot like last year,” Toro said of the 2024 season. So far, for the week of June 4-10, nine Collier beaches have about 600 nests (which excludes Keewaydin), similar to 2003 at this time.

Charlotte County

In 2023, Charlotte County had just over 2,000 turtle nests, mainly on Manasota Key, which had 1,145 nests in total. The reproductive success rate on Manasota Key was 59.12% for loggerheads and 50% for greens.

According to Alexandria Grant, coastal environmental specialist for Charlotte County Community Services, Charlotte County has about 502 sea turtle nests this year as of June 7. This is on par with the number of nests at this time in 2023.

Manasota Key and Stump Pass State Park have 332 loggerhead nests. Palm Island, Knight Island and Don Pedro have 143 loggerhead nests and one green nest, and the Charlotte County portion of Boca Grande has 28 loggerhead nests. ¦

The post Hope for Hatchlings first appeared on Fort Myers Florida Weekly .