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Collier Reports First Sea Turtle Nest of 2019 Season

COTERC
/
Canadian Organization For Tropical Education and Rainforest Conservation

A sea turtle nest found Monday on a Naples beach is the earliest one recorded since Collier County’s Sea Turtle Monitoring Program began keeping track over two decades ago.

That’s according to Maura Kraus, the principal environmental specialist for the county. 

Kraus said sea turtle nesting season officially begins May 1 and runs through the end of October. She said that because turtles don’t concern themselves with human calendars, it isn’t uncommon for them to start a little early.

"The earliest nest we have, previous to the one that we just had on Monday, was April 24, and that was 2002," Kraus said.

Kraus said sea turtles usually begin nesting when Gulf waters reach about 81 degrees, and for the last three weeks, the temperature in the Gulf has remained consistently at 78 degrees.

In Collier County, 966 turtle nests were recorded in the 2018 season in spite of the red tide outbreak.

Loggerhead sea turtles are the most prolific nesters on Southwest Florida beaches, and it can take 17 to 33 years for the species to reach sexual maturity.  It may take a few decades for scientists to know the impacts of last year’s red tide on this threatened species.

Andrea Perdomo is a reporter for WGCU News. She started her career in public radio as an intern for the Miami-based NPR station, WLRN. Andrea graduated from Florida International University, where she was a contributing writer for the student-run newspaper, The Panther Press, and was also a member of the university's Society of Professional Journalists chapter.