×
×
homepage logo
STORE

Turtle season begins crawl on Friday

By Staff | Apr 29, 2009

A loggerhead turtle leaves behind a distinctive trail on her way to the Gulf of Mexico.

It’s time to turn off or shield any inappropriate lighting or pull your drapes if you live beachside. It’s also time to put away all your outdoor furniture, toys and tents from behind beach vegetation.

It’s turtle time.

From May through October, sea turtles return to our local beaches for a nesting ritual that has gone on for millions of years. Each spring when Gulf water temperatures near 80 degrees, these reptiles mate 20 miles offshore and the females crawl onshore, dig a cavity in the sand and lay between 100-120 eggs.

After the eggs incubate for roughly two months and hatch, the two-inch infants slowly make their way back to the Gulf. If he or she survives, there’s a good chance that same hatchling may return to the same beach as an adult -a process called “imprinting”, according to Turtle Time founder Eve Haverfield.

“When hatchlings come out of the nest, their instincts are to look for light,” she said. “The ultraviolet rays are their guiding light. It is thought that, while these hatchlings are crawling across the beach toward the water, they memorize the site so that when they reach maturity they come back to their natal beaches. That’s been proven time and time again through genetic testing and tagging.”

A two-inch-long turtle hatchling checks out his new surroundings.

One particular monitoring during Haverfield’s previous years on Sanibel Island still gives her goose bumps talking about it.

“We documented a turtle one night that had been tagged 16 years prior to our finding her,” she said. “We checked the tag and she nested on the same night at the same location and at the same time of night.”

Haverfield is celebrating her 30th year of protecting sea turtles. In 1989, she began Turtle Time, a non-profit organization dedicated to the recovery and conservation of the 300-350 pound marine reptiles.

With the help from a yearly average of 100 volunteers monitoring 14 miles of sand, dunes and vegetation shortly after the sun rises on Bonita Beach, Big Hickory Island, Fort Myers Beach and Bunche Beach, Haverfield is cautiously expecting a continued upswing in hatchlings. After a poor showing in the first few years of the new century -including just eight in 2007- the hatchling count increased to 44 in 2008.

She watches over two types of volunteers -permitees and walkers. Permitees are allowed to manipulate, mark and excavate nests when hatched. Walkers are trained volunteers who “identify turtle tracks but are not hands-on as far as turtle conservation.”

According to Haverfield, temperature and light are the two ingredients that govern a life cycle of a sea turtle. When gulf temperatures reach about 80 degrees, the warm water initiates the mating process.

The gender of a turtle is actually determined by temperature of the sand and the temperature within the nest cavity. If 86 degrees and higher, expect all females; if 84 and under, expect primarily males; between 84-86 degrees, expect a 50-50 distribution.

Temperature also reflects the frequency of nestings. Any given female will averaged 3-5 nests per season.

“They nest, go back into the water for 11 to 15 days, come back and nest again usually in that same general area,” said Haverfield. “She may lay close to 1,000 eggs and out of those 1,000, we might get one to four hatchlings to survive. That’s part of the process. Some of them are part of the food chain.”

Light determines the direction the hatchlings go. Lights that are visible on the beach disturb the sea turtle’s nocturnal behavior.

“A female may want to come ashore where she was imprinted on but, if someone has their big porch light on, she may not want to come ashore,” said Haverfield. “If she doesn’t find a nesting area that is acceptable to her, she may abort her eggs in the Gulf.

Adversaries to Turtle Time activities say turtles cannot see light because of the inability to stretch their necks out far enough. Haverfield discounts those remarks.

“Sea turtles have these huge eyes and they respond to sky glow,” she said. “Light travels. That’s why we have a regulation that says no light should be visible on the beach.”

Haverfield emphasized that Turtle Time does not want to compromise anyone’s safety.

“There are ways to shield lights,” she said. “You want to shield the point source. In other words, if I’m on the beach and I don’t see that light bulb, I don’t see where that source of light is coming from.”

Haverfield mentioned two different types of lights that are turtle friendly.

“Cannister lights direct light right where people need it,” she said. “Low pressure sodium light -the yellowish light that are used in street lights from Times Square to the Lani Kai Resort- is a light that sea turtles don’t respond to. They are also cost efficient to have and less toxic.”

Haverfiled says beach furniture should be removed from behind beach vegetation after 9 p.m. “Turtles can get tangled up in beach chairs and they cannot crawl backwards,” she said. “So, if it’s a lightweight chair, they’ll crawl back into the water wearing the chair and drown. Turtles are air-breathing reptiles. They need to come up to breathe.”

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission enforces the endangered species act so turtles and their habitat are protected under that law. Due to the habitat clause, beach raking goes against the endangered species act, according to Haverfield.

“Places on the beach which are consistently raked and flattened tend to flood so the nest cannot survive there. Some of the beach should be left more natural.”

If you encounter a turtle at night, do not shine a light, approach or use flash photography on her. Haverfield says that is considered harassment.

If you see a hatchling wandering around in broad daylight, put it in a dry container and contact Turtle Time at (239) 481-5566 right away.

“Please pick up monofilament line but be cautious because there may be a hook attached,” she warns.

The life of a sea turtle

It takes most sea turtles 20-50 years to reach maturity if they survive.

The females like to nest on dunes, while the males tend to hang out in the water until June or July before leaving the area. Unlike the females, males do not necessarily come back to their natal beaches.

“That’s a good thing,” said Haverfield. “That way we don’t have inbreeding. It allows for a genetic disparity.”

Sea turtles are an indicator species. “If sea turtles are dying, the waters are not healthy and ultimately we’ll be affected too,” she said.

Haverfield calls her reptile friends “ecological engineers” because they have managed to adapt and survive for 200 million years.

“They’ve outlasted many natural occurrences,” she said. “If they disappear, then we’re in trouble.”

The life of the turtle lady

“I started 30 years ago on Sanibel,” said Haverfield. “One morning I was walking the beach and came across these unusual tracks which I thought came from a vehicle. But I realized that there was only one track and there had to be parallel tracks. Then I came across a second one and realized something had crawled out of the water. In this case, the turtle had crawled all the way up to the dune vegetation and I saw some disturbance. That’s how I got hooked.”

Haverfield’s largest hatchling count is 62 in one season.

“I’ve always loved turtles,” she said. “These mysterious animals grabbed a hold of me. It’s still fun after all these years.”

Turtles status diet

Loggerheads threatened shellfish

Kemp’s Ridleys endangered horsehoe crabs

Greens endangered vegetarian

Hawksbills endangered coral

Leatherbacks endangered jelly fish