Here's a loggerhead sea turtle in her nest pit. Photo copyright Jim Angy.
Terry Tomalin recently wrote an article for the St. Pete/Clearwater Area CVB website about turtles on Fort Desoto Park beaches. Here’s a quote from the article in which Terry speaks with park supervisor Jim Wilson:
In a typical year, more than 150 loggerhead sea turtles successfully nest on St. Petersburg/Clearwater area beaches, and of those, more than a third will be found on six miles of undeveloped shoreline in Wilson ‘s backyard.
Loggerheads are one of five species of endangered sea turtles that lay their eggs on Florida’s beaches. While the green, leatherback, hawksbill and Kemp’s Ridley can be found in local waters, the loggerhead is by far the most common.
Peak nesting time runs May through August. On a typical summer day, Wilson starts early and surveys the beach looking for the telltale sign of a nesting loggerhead.
Sea turtles are beautiful animals and hundreds of volunteers work hard all over the state to ensure that their nesting is as successful as possible. It’s not easy work, getting up and out on the beach before dawn to look for new nests, staying out half the night to protect new hatchlings, and trying to educate residents who may resent altering their customs and behaviors on account of turtles. But, barring bad weather, the beach is a pretty pleasant place to work. Join Sanibel Toots as she makes her last turtle walk of the season at sunrise along a beach on Sanibel Island to monitor a turtle nest.
If you don’t really understand what all the fuss is about over sea turtles, you should really go and hear an educational presentation about sea turtles and watch a female loggerhead laying her eggs on the beach at night. You’ll never think about turtles the same way again.
One other thing Tomalin writes in his article:
It is possible to come across a nesting loggerhead at night; the odds are about the same as seeing a shooting star. If so, keep your distance and do not disturb the turtle.
That may be true here on the Gulf coast, but it is very easy to encounter nesting loggerheads on the Atlantic coast by signing up for one of the many turtle walks that occur at night during nesting season. The Sea Turtle Preservation Society in Indialantic does an excellent job of helping people watch nesting turtles. You might like to read an article I wrote for VisitFlorida.com about my experience with nesting turtles.
Read other blog posts I’ve written about sea turtles here on blog the beach. Most have photos of nesting turtles.
