Sea turtles tread the sand on Anna Maria Island.
The first of this year’s nesting season brought tractor-like tread marks from a loggerhead’s flippers May 3 near to the beach near 74th Street in Holmes Beach, with Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring volunteer Skip Coyne first eyeing the crawl marks in the sand.
Additionally, volunteer Bill Booher identified a loggerhead’s crawl on the beach near Pine Avenue in Anna Maria. It turned out to be a false crawl, which occurs when a female sea turtle comes ashore to lay her eggs but ends up not nesting.
AMITW executive director Suzi Fox said it is possible the same turtle made the false crawl and nest.
“It’s beautiful,” Fox said of the season’s first nest.
She added that the same loggerhead might return to AMI to nest again this season, as one sea turtle can nest five to eight times in one season.
A hatch date is difficult to predict due to factors of Mother Nature, Fox said, but generally, incubation is 60 days.
“I’ve seen them go at 42 days and 90 days,” Fox said.
As of May 9, AMITW had identified seven nests on the island, as well as 17 false crawls.
Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring is a nonprofit focused on monitoring and collecting data on sea turtle nests and activity.
Nesting season runs May 1-Oct. 31, with volunteers on the beaches after sunrise looking for signs of activity.
If they come across a nest, the volunteers place a red flag and continue with their beach check. After, they return to place ribbons and stakes at the nest and enter data on tablets.
Nests are verified as needed, which involves carefully placing a hand in the nest hole to check for eggs.
But nests only can be verified by people holding permits from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which, on AMI is Fox and the volunteers she lists on her permit.
AMITW has 19 volunteers: 10 are more experienced, referred to as “oldies” by Fox, leaving nine “newbies.” The volunteers monitor the 7-mile length of island beaches until nesting season picks up.
They ride the beach, sometimes in pairs, on one of AMITW’s four ATVs. At the height of the season, up to eight volunteers are cruising from end to end, monitoring daily.
As sea turtles arrive on Anna Maria Island, Fox said she worries about lighting from properties and furniture and other beach gear left on the beach. Lighting can disorient nesting turtles and beach furniture can deter turtles from nesting.
“I’m a little worried about repeat offenders,” Fox said.
Lighting on beachfront properties should be amber in wavelength and shielded, any holes dug on the shore should be filled, and beach furniture should be removed from the nesting beach by sunset.
For more information, go to AMITW’s website at islandturtlewatch.com or call AMITW at 941-778-5638.