Sea turtle nesting season wrapped up at the end of October. The data is still being compiled, but initial reports indicate it was a particularly good year for one species.
"It was a great year for loggerheads this year, even with the storms," said Sue Schaf, a biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Last year was especially good for green sea turtles. Schaf said this year's loggerhead numbers were up throughout the Keys. Islamorada beach monitors reported the most nests ever; seven nests were reported on Smathers Beach in Key West.
Dry Tortugas National Park also saw a record number of loggerhead turtle nests this year.
And it was a good year for species that nest more rarely in the Keys than green or loggerhead sea turtles.
"This year, we had two hawksbill nests at Bahia Honda State Park," Schaf said. "One literally just hatched yesterday afternoon and the other one last week."
And this was the first year ever that a leatherback sea turtle nested in what Schaf calls the "mainland Keys" — the islands from Key West to Key Largo. The largest of all sea turtles has been known to nest in the Tortugas. This one was also at Bahia Honda State Park in the Lower Keys.
Hurricane Matthew destroyed some turtle nests on the Florida coast. But Schaf says the loggerhead nesting was so productive this year that the storm didn’t do quite the damage that it could have.
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