First sea turtle nesting stats of new season reported

May 10, 2011 1 min read

Photo of a loggerhead, taken by SCCF volunteer Julie Reed, in June 2010. Daytime nesting by sea turtles is rare. The image was taken with a telephoto lens and Reed was never closer than 100 feet to the turtle. It is against Florida state law to interfere with nesting sea turtles, hatchlings and their nests.

The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation coordinates monitoring of sea turtle nesting on Sanibel and Captiva and this year’s nesting season is off to a great start.

Below is where we stand with sea turtle activity as of Friday, May 6 as well as the previous two years for comparison. Note that all crawls are attributed to Loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta), with the exception of one Kemp’s Ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) nest on Sanibel’s West End.

As of May 6, 2011:

East End – 0 nests, 0 false crawls

West End – 5 nests, 4 false crawls

Captiva – 1 nest, 0 false crawls

As of May 6, 2010:

East End – 0 nests, 0 false crawls

West End – 0 nests, 0 false crawls

Captiva – 0 nests, 0 false crawls

As of May 6, 2009:

East End – 0 nests, 0 false crawls

West End – 0 nests, 0 false crawls

Captiva – 0 nests, 0 false crawls

For additional information about SCCF’s Sea Turtle Monitoring program, visit www.sccf.org.