Walk #9

Sorry to tell you that we started a little earlier today and it was just barely light enough to see; so, no pictures. Everything was still the same, no turtle tracks; the two nests in zone 1 looked fine. We did however, have so much trash that we had to leave it where we came off the beach and go back to pick it up and haul it to a dumpster. What a mess of things we found this morning. There was another pair of lost flip flops, as usual and plenty of plastic bags, a beach ball, etc also a comforter that had no doubt, come from one of the condos in the area, laying on the beach and piled full of trash. That was a major endeavor, dragging it all the way back, along with arm loads and a big bag full too. But, I guess somebody had to clean it up. There was only one other person on the beach and that was a jogger who went by just as I was dragging the comforter up to the Buttonwood access. She probably thought I had been out sleeping on the beach! Hopefully things will be better next week. There wasn't even a pretty sunrise to look at. We checked later today to make sure we would get a call after the nests in our zone hatch. We really want to be there when they do the dig to find out how many eggs hatched, if any are left, etc. We were told; yes they would call us so we can be there. Yippee!


Did you know?

A steep decline in Loggerhead nesting is evident from the nest counts at the state's index 27 beaches, which are those used for research and trend analysis by the state wildlife institute, an arm of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. And did you know, Sanibel/Captiva are Index Beaches?Last year was the lowest nesting season on record for the loggerheads -- about half of the 1998 peak -- at the beaches used by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute to study long-term trends.

What happens to Florida loggerheads is critical because the state hosts 90 percent of the nation's loggerhead-turtle nests.