Baby Turtles Here and There

Baby Sea Turtles Here and There

Here on Sanibel Island, we have had a few nests hatch in the past couple of weeks. Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation's Amanda Bryant, Biologist and our head turtle lady, along with a large group of volunteers, do everything they can to help the new hatchlings survive. Nests are dug 3 days after they hatch by an SCCF permittee, who counts the shells and rescues any stragglers. Most of the time a few stragglers are found, still in the nest. Those babies are usually kept in a bucket,damp and dark, until they are released at their nesting site, later that night. The cover of darkness, when there are less preditors, provides them a better chance for survival.

Many volunteers are working to save the sea turtles all along our coastlines.

Volunteers helping save baby turtles on Bonita Beach.

Volunteers helping sea turtles on Anna Maria Island.

Eleventh Turtle Walk of 2010

This morning my partner wasn't able to do the turtle walk with me. So, he dropped me off beside the Sanibel Inn, where I walked out a beach access. This made it all seem a little different, by starting at the opposite end.

It was still pretty dark, as I walked out between trees and bushes, then on the board walk to the sand. When I got to that point, there was a little more light.




There was a man already standing near the shore, with camera in hand. He had a lens in the other hand and he told me he had made a mistake and kept it in air conditioning and now it got foggy and he was trying to get it warmed up before the sunrise. I've had that happen a few times myself. He said I had better hurry because rain was coming. So, I went on my way. The sky was looking pretty threatening and I kept hearing thunder in the distance. It made me hurry along a little faster than usual, for a while.






The one turtle nest in our zone had a couple of holes in it from ghost crabs. I reported it to the Permittee, when I finished my walk. I hope they can't get into the eggs. :(


There was a strong breeze and it was very pleasant walking along the beach. I loved walking toward the sunrise this morning, but it was pretty difficult to keep from looking back all the time. The clouds behind me were a different color every time I looked around. The rising sun makes such a beautiful light show on the clouds. That's why I love sunrises so much, and also why you have to keep scrolling through photo after photo that probably look the same to you. To me, everyone is different and I can't decide to delete very many of them. :)














It seems kind of strange to find at least one shoe, every time I come to the beach early in the morning. How do you manage to go home with one shoe on? Beats me! Or, if you carry things from the beach, don't you ever look back to make sure you got everything or didn't drop anything? Maybe only Mommies are trained to do that.


I'd be interested to know what they had in mind or where they were going with this one.


Patron spirits must have been here. :)








Not the greatest shelling this morning.




My favorite sight of the day!


I didn't have to share the beach with many others, this morning.














Snowy Plovers stopped to say hello!


If you enlarge and look closely at this one, you'll see this poor little Plover has both legs, but only one foot. But, you would never notice, when it's running along the beach. I've noticed it every time, and stand in awe of how well it has adapted.


This guy has the beginnings of a perfect day!


There were more shells, in places.


Some bad fisherman, left his shrimp bait, behind to rot in the sun. :(










Sea Pork




A few things to carry home.


It was a beautiful morning, and I needed another look back, as I was leaving at the Buttonwood access.


And......just one more! :)



An explanation of the new method being used this year by SCCF Biologist, to mark the sea turtle nests, was sent to those of us who volunteer. This is one time, that I think all of us are hoping these measures will be a waste of time, because no oil gets to our beaches. :)

This season,The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission has issued new nesting beach monitoring protocols for all gulf coast beaches in
response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Here is a short summary of the protocol.
• Every nest must be staked
• Every nest must be staked using 4 stakes
• Every nest must be verified
• Every nest must be triangulated
• Every nest must be recorded using a GPS with accuracy of less than 1ft.

Verifying and triangulating each nest means that the exact location of the egg chamber must be determined and stakes will be placed in the dune behind the nest at measured distances. All of these steps are to ensure the safety of the nest if
a beach becomes oiled and cleanup is necessary. In the event of oil, every nest will be staked with a ten foot buffer. This will protect the nests from any additional traffic or equipment on the beach. All nests due to hatch will be also be caged. This
will allow us to catch the hatchlings and prevent them from reaching the oiled beach and water. They will then be released in an unaffected area.

Some Turtles Recovered & Released, Amount of Nests Slowly Increasing On Sanibel and Captiva

Finally some good news!

After caring for five endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles that had been rescued from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, SeaWorld Orlando released them into the waters of Gullivan Bay near Marco Island, Fl. The area is a natural habitat for Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles.


Here on Sanibel and Captiva the number of sea turtle nests is still lower than it was last year at this time, but the number is growing. Hopefully that is because the season got started a little late and our Mommy turtles will soon catch up. :) This is the total number of nests, false crawls, and hatches up to today, July 12, 2010 and the previous two years for comparison.

As of July 12, 2010:

Sanibel East- 13 nests, 51 false crawls, 0 hatches

Sanibel West- 98 nests, 199 false crawls, 5 hatches

Captiva- 43 nests, 101 false crawls, 2 hatches


As of July 12, 2009:

Sanibel East- 23 nests, 50 false crawls, 0 hatches

Sanibel West- 131 nests, 159 false crawls, 9 hatches

Captiva- 69 nests, 55 false crawls, 8 hatches


As of July 12, 2008:

Sanibel East- 28 nests, 42 false crawls, 1 hatch

Sanibel West- 199 nests, 200 false crawls, 12 hatches

Captiva- 101 nests, 86 false crawls, 13 hatches

Sea Turtle Nesting Statistics

Sea Turtle Nesting stats, compared to last two years, doesn't look so good. Our SCCF Turtle Lady, Amanda, is hopeful the nesting season will last longer because it actually started later this year than usual.

As of July 6, 2010

Sanibel East- 9 nests, 42 false crawls, 0 hatches

Sanibel West- 85 nests, 180 false crawls, 1 hatch

Captiva- 39 nests, 93 false crawls, 1 hatch


As of July 6, 2009:

Sanibel East- 20 nests, 44 false crawls, 0 hatches

Sanibel West- 128 nests, 141 false crawls, 3 hatches

Captiva- 62 nests, 51 false crawls, 3 hatches


As of July 6, 2008:

Sanibel East- 26 nests, 36 false crawls, 0 hatches

Sanibel West- 185 nests, 184 false crawls, 5 hatches

Captiva- 88 nests, 73 false crawls, 5 hatches

Sennet is off and swimming!

More sea turtles were released back to the sea, at Topsail, NC. One loggerhead, named Sennet, was sent off with a tracking device. You can read about the release and also track Sennet on seaturtlehospital.org. I checked

Live Streaming Turtle Cams

A short time ago, I read that live streaming webcams were being placed at three Loggerhead sea turtle nests, on a private beach on Big Pine Key in the Lower Florida Keys. These cameras were funded by the Florida Keys tourism council in an effort to raise awareness of sea turtles and two Keys based organizations, Save-A-Turtle and Marathon's Turtle Hospital that are working to protect and care for marine turtles and their habitat.

Laws prohibit people from touching or disturbing hatchlings, nests and nesting turtles, however the placement of these webcams was approved by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The turtle cams were put on three loggerhead nests in mid-August. The cameras were equipped with infrared emitters to avoid any disturbing the turtle hatchlings. Sadly, the first nest did not produce a hatch, the second did, but there was a problem with the camera and it failed to record. The third nest however, was a complete success! Now we can all watch the baby loggerheads emerge from their nest and make their way to the ocean. You may want to share this with your friends. :-)

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE WEBCAM

Good News and Bad News About Leatherback Sea Turtles

More than 40 little Leatherback Sea Turtles were found still in a nest on South Ponte, Vedra Beach, Florida this morning. Leatherback nests may be on the increase. There is a heart warming article and a cute video about these little guys.


The bad news was also about a Leatherback turtle. A large 600 lb female was discovered wash­ed up on a Wainscott, Long Island beach.


On the Treasure Coast of Florida, Hurricane Bill could be bad news for sea turtles. This weekend, even if the hurricane is over 700 miles off shore, it could still send some, possibly, 8 foot waves that could cause a lot of erosion. Leatherbacks, loggerheads and green turtles , all have active nests on the beach. The heavy surf could wash out nests and also make it difficult for turtles that will come in to nest later.

Lucky Sea Turtles!

On Friday, March 13, fishermen off the coast of Sanibel, found a Loggerhead sea turtle. The turtle was tangled in crab trap line. The turtle was quickly rescued with help from CROW and SCCF. The aproximately 300 lb turtle appeared to have no serious injury, and happily swam away. I'd say that was one lucky turtle!

Yesterday, a Loggerhead was found swimming near the dock of, the Turtle Hospital in Marathon in the Florida Keys. The turtle has been checked into the hospital with a bacterial infection in its bloodstream. Makes you wonder how it knew where to go for treatment. :-) Read the news article and see a short video.

Cold Blamed For Turtle Strandings

Volunteers walk the beaches on the north side of the Cape early in the morning and looking for stranded turtles. They are playing beat the clock, trying to save the many Kemp's Ridley Turtles that have been stunned by the cold water. Another article about the strandings....

New Rules to Protect Loggerhead Sea Turtles

An estimated 600 loggerheads a year die in longline fishing. This led Federal fishing regulators to believe they need new rules to protect loggerhead turtles that are dying on commercial grouper lines. Read about some of the possibilities in this article.