Sea turtles have started nesting on Florida beaches, including on Anna Maria Island, where a nest was marked April 27 by Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring.
With still a few days before the May 1 official start of nesting, The Islander spoke April 25 with Simona Ceriani, a scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, about what the FWC had observed in terms of early nesting.
“Historically, they start nesting earlier in Southeast Florida, then central east,” Ceriani said, referring to loggerheads, the most common species to nest on AMI. “Then, in the beginning of May, they show up in the Gulf.”
Since February, the FWC had mostly seen leatherback nests on the state’s east coast.
However, a leatherback nest was observed April 24 on Sanibel Island in Southwest Florida.
And now locations are seeing loggerhead nests.
Nesting numbers
From a conservation standpoint, the picture of sea turtle nesting numbers is bigger than what happens in any given year.
Numbers of sea turtle nests have been increasing but there are some nuances.
“Green turtle nest numbers have been increasing by 120-fold since 1989. So that’s definitely an exponential increase,” Ceriani said.
Nests counts are used as a proxy for the number of females and do not account for the number of males or total sea turtles.
“We’re only monitoring one tiny segment of the population,” Ceriani said.
Also, nest numbers for loggerheads tell a different story than nest numbers for greens.
Loggerheads have had a less dramatic increase in population since 1989, when the state started collecting data. Also, loggerheads have seen a lot more variation over the years than greens.
Another fact to keep in mind is that it takes 30 years for sea turtles to reach maturity, which is just a “snapshot” in the grander scheme of things, according to Ceriani.
“If suddenly the numbers go down, it’s going to be very difficult to bring them back up,” she said.
Florida’s position
Florida is a global hotspot for loggerheads and crucial for understanding what’s going on with the species.
About 90% of loggerheads in the Northwest Atlantic and 40% of the global population nest in Florida.
“We are the most important single location in the world for that species,” Ceriani said. “The other thing that’s difficult to understand for us is how is it that green turtles are doing so well and use the same beaches as loggerheads.”
Sea turtle nesting season on Anna Maria Island officially runs May 1-Oct. 31.
During the season, we expect female loggerheads and greens, two of the most common species to the island, to come to the beach to lay their eggs.
Incubation of their nests lasts about 55 days.
Then hatchlings emerge and make their way to the water to begin the 30-year maturation cycle. About 1 in 1,000 survive, according to the FWC.
Helping protect them is an investment in our future with sea turtles.