Sea Turtle Nesting Has Begun

Check out our latest nests found on Pinellas Beaches

CMA’s Sea Turtle Patrol has been back on Pinellas County beaches since April first, watching for the telltale tracks of sea turtles. Every morning at daybreak, Sea Turtle Nesting Team members patrol 26 miles of coastline from North Clearwater Beach to St. Pete Beach in specially-equipped trucks. The state-permitted Team includes Sea Turtle Nesting Supervisor Mike Anderson, his able sidekick Turtle Joe Widlansky, and Nesting Intern Jackie Shum. They are assisted by sea turtle nesting interns Beverly Austin, Liz Fahsbender, and Kelsey Tuminelli.

On Sunday, May 23, the first loggerhead sea turtle of the year made her nest in Treasure Island. Mike saw the distinctive flipper-print trail, located the nest, and staked it off to keep beachgoers from trampling it. As of May 27, the Team has found a total of five nests.

In 2009, CMA located and protected 138 nests in Pinellas County. Supervisor Anderson keeps extensive records on each nest, which he reports to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), which has governed the Florida Sea Turtle Nesting Beach Survey since 1989. Twenty-one years of records reveal a declining trend of loggerhead nest numbers. A peak of almost 60,000 nests on patrolled beaches statewide in 1998 compares to 2009’s count of about 35,000 on the same beaches.

In contrast, green and leatherback sea turtle nests have been steadily increasing over the same 21-year period. These species rarely nest on Pinellas County beaches. All 138 nests in Pinellas last year were loggerhead nests.

Sea turtles can nest into early September, and the Sea Turtle Nesting Team patrols until all nests are inventoried as no longer active, which may take until late October. Stay tuned for ongoing updates on sea turtle nest numbers and the number of hatchlings throughout the nesting season!

Check out our latest nests found on Pinellas Beaches

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