“We are pretty certain the turtle mamas are done for the season,” Kristen Mazzarella, executive director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, says of the 2025 nesting season.
For the week ending Sept. 12, AMITW documented no new sea turtle nests on island beaches.
AMITW also was only monitoring 64 nests with less than two months remaining in the season, which concludes Oct. 31.
“We continue daily patrols to check all nests and complete nest excavations,” Mazzarella said, adding that beachgoers and waterfront property owners should continue to observe best practices, including lights out at night.
AMITW reported one disorientation for the week, a positive in a season that’s seen 30 adult disorientations and 141 hatchling disorientations.
By the numbers
As of Sept. 12, AMITW reported 542 sea turtle nests, 828 false crawls, 402 hatched nests and 29,523 hatchlings produced.