With turtle nesting season officially underway as of May 1, Fort Myers Beach is now home to 4 nests. The first nest was spotted on May 7th. To the south of us on Bonita Beach there are already 17 nests.
Unfortunately, there were 6 non-nesting emergences on FMB and 10 on Bonita Beach. These non nesting emergences are the formal term for “false crawls” which occurs when a turtle emerges from the gulf but then returns without nesting. This could be caused by human disruption such as a flashlight, phone screen or flash photography.
Please remember if you happen to encounter a sea turtle attempting to nest, observe from a distance and don’t introduce any light which can be disorienting.
DID YOU KNOW?
The loggerhead turtle is the most common sea turtle found in Florida. It has a reddish-brown shell and is named for its large head. 90% of loggerhead sea turtle nests are on Florida’s coast. As we learned from Turtle Time these turtles are classified as threatened and they are one of the seven types of sea turtles in the world. Females return to their nesting beach every two or more years, sometimes traveling thousands of miles to get there.