Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring received a distress call July 12 after some newly hatched sea turtles crawled in the wrong direction, a path leading them across Gulf Drive.
AMITW section coordinator Kathy Doddridge responded to the call, arriving to the 600 block of Gulf Drive North in Bradenton Beach to find police officers, onlookers and dead loggerhead hatchlings in the street.
According to Doddridge, the turtles became disoriented by the glow of lights on and around Gulf Drive that were visible from the beach.
Turtle hatchlings find their way to the Gulf of Mexico after emerging from the nest by using the moon’s reflection on the water. Street lights and lights on buildings visible from the nesting area on the beach can cause disorientation.
Out of the 112 hatched eggs in the nest, Doddridge said only a few hatchlings’ markings led to the water with the majority of the flipper marks showing they headed for Gulf Drive. AMITW volunteers collected 12 live hatchlings that made it across the street.
“The turtles didn’t stand a chance against the cars. No driver could’ve seen them crossing the street at night. Drivers are looking for people on bicycles, pedestrians and cars pulling out in front of them, not turtles the size of silver dollars,” Doddridge said.
She said people living or staying near the beaches must make sure any light seen from the shore is a turtle-friendly light. Otherwise lights must be turned off at night.
“Code enforcement is working very hard to get people into compliance,” Doddridge said.
Because of the disorientation, the turtle nest, the first to hatch for the season in Doddridge’s section, was immediately excavated. Ordinarily, nests are excavated three days after hatching to count the hatched eggs, any eggs that don’t hatch or to collect hatchlings remaining in the nest for release.
AMITW volunteers didn’t find any hatchlings in the nest. They returned those that died to the nest in the sand.
The 12 live hatchlings were put in a bucket of seawater and sand to recover from the event before being released to the Gulf in the evening. Doddridge said the live hatchlings were possibly dehydrated.
It typically takes hatchlings about 10 minutes to make their way out of the nest and across the sand to the Gulf of Mexico.
“You want to do so much but there’s only so much Mother Nature lets you do,” Doddridge said.
“It’s tough when you’ve watched it for 52 days,” she added, referring to the nest’s incubation time.
To lessen the chance of future disorientations, AMITW volunteers report possible light violations to city code enforcement officers and they encourage others to do the same.
To reach Anna Maria code enforcement with a lighting complaint, call 941-708-6132. In Bradenton Beach, call 941-778-1005. In Holmes Beach code complaints go to the Holmes Beach Police Department at 941-730-5804.