Turtle Post Season – Beach sea reptiles end year on high/low note
Sea turtles appeared to really dig Fort Myers Beach this year, but end results were not as high-yielding as they should have been in the long run.
Turtle Time, celebrating its Silver Anniversary in monitoring, reported the highest nest count from our seasonal prehistoric pals in current Beach history, as 73 nests were recorded on the island. The previous high during the nonprofit organization’s volunteer watch was 65 in 2012. The six-month season ended Saturday.
The other side of the story was production. The outcome of the 73 nests revealed only 31 of them produced hatchlings for a 42.4 percent success rate. In full, Turtle Times recorded 6,836 eggs with a similar 42 percent hatching success rate. The result was due to such a saturated summer, especially in July.
Turtle Time founder Eve Haverfield compared walking on the beach to walking in quick sand during that month.
“It was pretty dismal,” she said. “Accumulative rainfall this past July came close to a record high. In 2001, we had 18.80 inches of rain. This year in July, we had 15.05 inches of rain.”
Massive rain falls during the height of sea turtle season have put more than a damper on sea turtle nests. While no tropical storms or hurricanes were a damaging factor much like 2012 when 47 percent of the hatchlings involved in the 65 nests were “lost” due to such events, constant rain drowned out nests.
“Sea turtle nests can tolerate a wash-over, but they cannot tolerate constant moisture and water like that,” Haverfield said. “‘Unfortunately, that reflected in the outcome of our nests.”
One good sign outside the weather scope was sea turtles being successful in coming ashore with the intention of laying eggs and not being scared back into the water without nesting.
The 2015 season had fewer false crawls with 62 than the previous record-high year.
“Hopefully, its an indication of future nesting patterns,” Haverfield said.
It has been an uptrend from past years. Last year, the Beach recorded 48 hatched nests. Island nest counts in the past have climbed in recent seasons from 11 in 2009 to 23 in 2010 to 28 in 2011 to 65 in 2012 (highest number since 1996) before decreasing slightly to 44 in 2013.
The Beach is not an anomaly as far as sea turtle nest counts. The whole state has had a banner season as well. Loggerhead and Green sea turtles especially flourished. According to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, the number of Green turtle nests in Florida in 2015 was higher than the previous highest year (2013) and more than double the old counts, while Loggerheads accounted for 52,647 nests on index beaches this year, down from 2012’s near-record count of 58,172 nests but above the last two years.
“That’s very encouraging,” said Haverfield.
Haverfield contributes the bump in sea turtle numbers to the act of preserving, guarding and protecting. She continuously applauds her dedicated volunteers at the local level.
“My volunteers are absolutely the best,” she said. “They are out there rain or shine, and I have to remind them not to go out during lightning. They just don’t want to miss anything. They are dedicated to do the very best for sea turtle conservation.”
Haverfield also would like to thank residents and visitors for keeping their distance from our prehistoric pals.
“This year, we did not see as many incidents of sea turtle harassment,” she said. “We did not see the harassment we have seen in previous years where people prevented them from going back into the water.”
While conservation efforts have appeared to have paid off this year, Turtle Time founder Eve Haverfield will continue to throw caution in the wind when discussing sea turtle regulation. There is still room for improvement.
While the offseason is turtle nesting free, Turtle Time officials continue to educate beachfront property owners and Realty personnel to join sea turtle conservation efforts by prepping structures for next season, which begins May 1, 2016. Steps such as shielding outside lights and replacing outdoor light bulbs with approved amber LED Par20 light bulbs before May 1, 2016, will aid in the whole process. A sea turtle loses its sense of direction due to extraneous circumstances such as artificial lighting at night.
“Amber LED lights provide excellent brightness. It’s a light that has a long wave length that sea turtles do not respond to,” she said. “It’s the wave of the future.
“The whole point of our conservation effort is to get as many hatchlings out into the ocean, because only one to four out of a thousand survive until adulthood. Each species has a specific function in the ocean to maintain the health of the ocean. It is incumbent upon us to make the beaches turtle-friendly.
Haverfield wants community members to know that the Fran and Tom Myers at Red Coconut RV Park are converting their lighting to Amber LED bulbs.
“They are making an effort to install amber led lights in their park, and we would like to applaud them for that,” she said.
Anyone can make the switch. The time is now.
“Between now and next year, it’s the perfect time to get your place converted to Amber LED lighting. The prices have come down considerably. There is even a local company in Bonita Springs that manufactures LED bulbs,” Haverfield said.
This marks of the 25th year of incorporation for Turtle Time Inc. The volunteer non-profit organization continues to monitor beachfront activity on Fort Myers Beach, Big Hickory Island, Bonita Beach, Bunche Beach and part of Bokeelia.