Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring is reporting a high number of disorientations among hatching sea turtle nests.
As of July 19, the nesting season was a little past the mid-season mark and many nests had already hatched, which occurs about 55 days from incubation.
Among the hatched nests, 55% disoriented, meaning hatchlings got lost or were impeded on their way to the water.
Last year, 105 of 404 nests disoriented in total, which is significantly less than the proportion so far this year.
Kristen Mazzarella, executive director of AMITW, said July 12 that the high number was “very disturbing.”
Mazzarella said closing window blinds and avoiding flashlight use on the beach are two ways to help reduce the risk of sea turtle disorientation.
“I really believe interior lights are more of an issue,” Jayson Clayton, code compliance supervisor at Holmes Beach, told The Islander in a phone interview July 18.
“We’ve done a good job in the city of Holmes Beach as far as our external turtle lights,” he said.
However, interior lighting is more difficult to enforce.
“With new people coming into rental units every week, they just forget to close their blinds or accidentally leave the TV on,” Clayton said.
Newer beachfront construction requires “turtle glass” to reduce the incidence of artificial light reaching the beach, but older houses are likely outfitted with regular windows that allow light to reach the beach.
Clayton said even headlights from a car on the road can be an issue.
Besides closing blinds and shutting off TVs when not in use, Clayton suggested people use lights farther from a window.
In addition to hatchling disorientation, AMITW has reported adult turtle disorientations, including two incidents of turtles reaching roadways, one a fatality, as a sea turtle was struck and killed June 19.
The second occurrence July 8 took place near Bayfront Park in Anna Maria.
However, the turtle was rescued from the road and returned to the water with the help of AMITW volunteers and the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
In an email to The Islander July 17, Anna Maria code enforcement manager David DeZutter said he was investigating the situation.
“If there happens to be a code violation, we will most certainly take the appropriate steps to correct the issue,” he said.
Although there are concerns, 2024 remains a record-breaking year for the number of sea turtle nests on Anna Maria Island, with a total of 664 as of July 19.
There also are some promising metrics across the state.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported that 2024 will likely become a record-breaking year for nesting by Kemp’s ridley sea turtles.
In a June 30 report, the FWC said there were 22 such nests.
Statewide, loggerheads and greens, the two most common species on Anna Maria Island, had totals of 67,856 and 2,556, respectively, and leatherbacks came in at 1,737 nests, mostly on the east coast.
About nesting season
Sea turtle nesting season runs May 1-Oct. 31 on AMI.
Female sea turtles come ashore on Anna Maria Island to lay their eggs during the season and hatchlings emerge from nests to crawl to the Gulf.
From the director’s report …
Sea turtle nesting activity is slowing on Anna Maria Island beaches while hatching activity is picking up.
Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring was busy the week ending July 21 documenting new hatches, conducting nest inventories and taking note of disorientations.
AMITW also continued to monitor a colony of least terns in north Bradenton Beach near 27th Street North, where six chicks have fledged.
“We also were lucky to have a researcher from Eckerd College come down to band some of the chicks,” AMITW executive director Kristen Mazzarella said in a report July 19.
Elizabeth Forys of Eckerd outfitted four chicks with bands. During the process, each bird was weighed and the length of bills and wings were measured to record data in state and federal databases.
In other news, Henrietta, a loggerhead tagged after nesting earlier this summer at Coquina Beach in Bradenton Beach for the Tour de Turtles marathon organized by the Sea Turtle Conservancy, returned to the island to nest July 17.
Henrietta, as of July 19, was swimming to foraging grounds.
The race doesn’t officially begin until Aug. 1.
— Masha Dolgoff