Sea Turtle Nesting

Mote Marine Laboratory’s Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program (STCRP) documented the first local sea turtle nest of the 2024 season on Sunday, April 28, on Venice Beach. This marks the beginning of a crucial period for sea turtle conservation.

Imagine the surprise felt by sea turtle lovers when the number of egg-filled clutches laid on Southwest Florida beaches during last summer’s nesting season totaled a normal year despite shorelines transformed by Hurricane Ian.Even better: The mommas kept coming.Female sea turtles often return to the beach of their birth to nest every three years or so, which made understandable the fears of the large and active cadre of turtle volunteers that Category 5 Ian in September 2022 had rendered nesting beaches so unrecognizable the females would be lost, search aimlessly, then dump their eggs at sea.

Sea turtle nesting season starts on May 1 and runs through October 31, and early nesting activity has already been reported in Southwest Florida on Casey Key in Venice and Captiva Island here in Lee County.

Volunteers from Sarasota’s Mote Marine Laboratory found first sea turtle nest reported this year Tuesday on Casey Key,

Sea turtle nests in the sand on Sanibel Island hatch at nearly twice the rate as clutches on Captiva Island, and a long-term study to find out why was kept from a setback when Florida Gulf Coast University stepped in when Hurricane Ian crossed Cuba and moved toward the sister barrier islands in late September.Scientists from the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation have been monitoring myriad environmental conditions in dozens of nests on both islands trying to figure out what’s going on.

As intense heat becomes more common around the world, the potential threat to biodiversity increases. One species at particular risk to a warming climate is found on the beaches of Florida.

The Sea Turtle Conservancy's annual Tour de Turtles allows people to follow the marathon migration of four different species of sea turtles that have been tagged with satellite transmitters.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Sea Turtle Monitoring Project is now in its 40th year, making it one of the longest continuously running sea turtle monitoring programs of its kind in the country. We’ll explore the history of this sea turtle monitoring project and its challenges, successes and findings with the Conservancy’s Director of Environmental Science Kathy Worley.

Sea Turtle nesting season in Southwest Florida runs from April 15 through October 31, which means it’s beginning to wind down. Find out what it takes to monitor and help protect the large marine reptiles.

We are all connected by the environment we share. The Earth is our home. This is the space where we share the environmental stories that caught our attention this week in Florida and beyond.