The Sea Turtle Conservancy will arrive to Anna Maria Island June 23-24 to recruit an island entry for the 2024 Tour de Turtles marathon.
STC will locate and tag a sea turtle overnight June 23 and then release the turtle at 8:30 a.m. on Coquina Beach in Bradenton Beach.
STC started Tour de Turtles 17 years ago and Anna Maria Island has been involved for seven of those years.
June 23-24, a sea turtle will be found during the night, tagged after nesting with a satellite transmitter and then held until release in the morning.
STC also will tag turtles in other locations in Florida, as well as in the Caribbean.
The science-side of the program is to gather information about sea turtle migration patterns via the satellite tags, as well as nesting patterns.
And the turtles also can be tracked by the public at tourdeturtles.org, helping generate interest and awareness.
“While we’re studying them for research, the public can also follow their migration,” Lexie Beach, STC communications coordinator, said June 13 in a phone interview with The Islander. “The event’s getting bigger and bigger every year.”
In 2023, about 300 people attended the release on Anna Maria Island of a loggerhead nicknamed Suzi.
This year, Beach said, the organization expects more than 400 people based on interest in a Facebook listing for the event.
Before Anna Maria Island was included as a location, the conservancy had no Florida entries from the Gulf of Mexico in the Tour de Turtles.
Their location selection process factors in the importance of the beaches for sea turtle nesting. For example, Melbourne Beach is one of the most important nesting beaches in the state and is an important location for the tour.
“Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch reached out to us and asked us if we would be interested in satellite tracking turtles from their side of the state,” Beach said. “One of the biggest pieces, too, is the funding of the transmitter itself.”
AMITW said it would partner with the conservancy and fundraise for the transmitter.
Each year, AMITW finds a partner to sponsor the cost of the transmitter. This year, the partner is Hurricane Hanks, 5346 Gulf Drive, Holmes Beach.
The conservancy also works with AMITW to determine which areas are best to look for nesting turtles. Sea turtles nest on Anna Maria Island May-October and AMITW patrols for nests every morning during the season.
Each turtle participating in the geotagged Tour de Turtles “marathon” will be swimming for a cause to help raise awareness on what can be done to protect sea turtles.
“Usually the Anna Maria Island turtle cause is light pollution — that is a big problem in the Anna Maria Island area,” Beach said.
Beach’s favorite part of the release is people getting a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” to see a sea turtle up close.
“They make such a big impact on the people that are there to see them, and then we want those people to hopefully go out and make a change,” Beach said.
AMITW’s report
AMITW reported heavy rain the week of June 10-16 was harsh but “most of our sea turtle nests survived.”
As of June 14, AMITW reported 268 sea turtle nests and 374 false crawls on AMI beaches.
AMITW also reported the first chick has hatched from a least tern colony in Bradenton Beach. There are 45 least terns and 20 nests in the colony.