Sea Turtles

As of Tuesday this week, the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation has documented 554 loggerhead nests and 1 leatherback nest on Sanibel and Captiva Islands this year -- 422 nests on Sanibel and 133 nests on Captiva.

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.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has issued a reminder that sea turtles are starting to nest on the state’s beaches. Residents and visitors can play a big part in helping to protect vulnerable nesting sea turtles this spring and summer while visiting Florida’s coastal habitats.

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.

The sea turtle nesting season that started just months after Ian hit ended up setting records for loggerhead turtles on Sanibel and Captiva island.

Young green sea turtle found in a freshwater retention pond near RV park in Fort Myers.The discovery of the year-old sea turtle matches one-year mark since Hurricane Ian

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.

Captiva residents and visitors should expect heavy equipment on the beaches for the week and are advised to keep their distance.

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.