SCCF: Sea turtle nesting season off to promising start
Sea turtle nesting season has started to pick up speed, the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation recently reported. As of May 19, current nesting numbers were 60 on Sanibel and 25 on Captiva.
“So far, the counts are on pace with 2019, a strong year that finished with 848 total nests,” Coastal Wildlife Director Kelly Sloan said. “It’s still too early in the season to know how things will shake out, but we are hopeful for another great year.”
On May 7, SCCF daytime tagging intern Hollis Hatfield found her first loggerhead nest.
Since May 1, the nighttime tagging team has observed 29 females who have nested on the islands in the past. One of the returning and one of biggest loggerheads, Paper Fig, was counted in 2016 and 2019 prior to being seen this year. She has laid eight nests on Sanibel during the past three years and staff are happy to have her back.
The first green sea turtle of the season, Dellora, false crawled on the west end of Sanibel before finally nesting a few days later. She previously nested on Sanibel in 2018 and 2019. Dellora was outfitted with a satellite transmitter in 2017 on Keewaydin and 2018 on Sanibel. Her transmitter shows that she cruises around the western Florida Bay when she is not nesting.