1 In 1,000 Hatchlings Will Survive; FL Groups Working To Improve Those Statistics

FLORIDA — Residents and visitors headed to Florida beaches need to watch their step while tromping through the loose upper beach sand.

April 1 marked the beginning of Florida sea turtle and shorebird nesting season along the state's west coast and northern beaches, which means every step a beach-goer takes could end the chance of life for a threatened baby Kemp's ridley sea turtle or snowy plover chick.

Nesting generally begins a month earlier from Brevard County south to Broward County.

Turtles and shorebirds nest in shallow holes in the loose sand and then camouflage their nests. Beach-goers who aren't paying attention can easily step on them.

The nesting season continues through the spring, summer and into October, also popular times for visitors to Florida beaches. That's why, as of April 1, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and its parnter conservation organizations posted warning signs along Florida beaches to remind beach-goers to take care.

As sea turtles and shorebirds build nests and lay eggs in the upper sands of coastal areas, an army of hundreds of volunteer turtle watchers will be surveying beaches early every morning to find and rope off nests and post signs warning visitors away.

It is illegal to disturb nesting sea turtles, their nests, eggs and hatchlings.

Despite the efforts to protect sea turtles, it is estimated that only one in 1,000 hatchlings will survive into adulthood.

Lights Out

At the same time, many Florida coastal counties, cities and towns have ordinances in place restricting the use of outdoor lights by homeowners, hotels, beachside restaurants and other businesses. After hatching, the young turtles use the light of the moon to guide them to their new home in the ocean. Outdoor lights can confuse the hatchlings.

Perceiving the artificial lighting as moonlight, the hatchlings will begin moving away from the ocean and become dehydrated and exhausted or become trapped in storm drains, crawl onto busy roadways or become prey to a host of predators. The FWC said this results in thousands of hatchling deaths each year.

Lights can also discourage female sea turtles from nesting.

Those who enjoy taking an evening stroll on Florida beaches should use moonlight and stars as guides and avoid using flashlights or cellphone lights.

For state lighting guidelines, click here.

To see which counties and municipalities have lighting ordinances in place, click here.

Clean Up Before Leaving The Beach

Equally important is for beach-goers to take care to fill in any holes they've dug in the sand during their day at the beach and pick up all trash.

Crawling on tiny, wobbling legs, the hatchlings can easily become trapped in a hole dug innocently by children to create a sand castle or encounter trash or beach chairs that become a barrier to the hatchlings' instinctive journey to the ocean.

Turtle watchers have reported finding hatchlings dead after becoming entangled in discarded fishing line. More than 40 Florida counties now have recycling containers at beaches for monofilament fishing line. Click here to find the locations of recycling bins.

Likewise, mother shorebirds can easily mistake cigarette butts, pieces of plastic and other trash for the tiny fish they feed to their newly hatched chicks, causing the chicks to choke or die because they can't digest the plastics.

Beach-goers should also refrain from leaving behind food scraps, assuming they will be quickly snapped up by the always-ravenous seagulls that patrol Florida beaches. Foods scraps can also attract predators, such as raccoons and crows, which are just as likely to steal eggs from nests or dine on hatchlings.

To see some real-life examples of items that have caused sea turtles and hatchings to become disoriented, click here.

Keep Your Distance

Getting too close (50 feet or less) to nesting sea turtles can cause them to leave the beach before they complete nesting.

Shorebirds, seabirds and wading birds also need plenty of space to prevent them from abandoning from nests, leaving their eggs exposed to the elements and predators.

The FWC recommends stay at least 300 feet from nesting birds and sea turtles. Pet owners should keep their dogs on a short leash and well away from nesting areas.

"An easy way to be a beach hero is to leave pets at home when you go to the beach," said the FWC. Click here to download the FWC's "Be a Beach Hero" brochure.

Sea Turtles Nesting On Florida Beaches

There are five species of sea turtles that nest on Florida beaches, according to the FWC.

The most common nests belong to the loggerhead, named for its massive, block-like head. Loggerhead adult sea turtles weigh an average of 275 pounds and have a shell length of about 3 feet.

A federally designated threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, the loggerhead's carapace, which is a ruddy brown on top and creamy yellow underneath, is very broad near the front of the turtle and tapers toward the rear. Each of its flippers has two claws.

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Florida’s sandy Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico beaches host one of the largest loggerhead nesting populations in the world. Females return to their nesting beach every two or more years to lay four to seven nests, one about every 14 days. Each nest contains about 100 to 126 eggs that incubate about 60 days. Their nests can be found all along Florida's east coast and most of the west coast with the exception of the Nature Coast, an area from Pasco County north to Wakulla County.

Green turtles, prized for making turtle soup, were nearly hunted into extinction and are now designated endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Named for their green body fat, green turtles were valued by European settlers in the New World for their meat, hide, eggs and "calipee" (the fat attached to the lower shell that formed the basis of green turtle soup).

By 1878, 15,000 green turtles a year were shipped from Florida and the Caribbean to England. At one time, Key West was a major processing center for the trade.

A more streamlined-looking turtle than the bulky loggerhead, the green turtle weighs an average of 350 pounds and has a small head for its body size. Its oval-shaped upper shell averages 3.3 feet in length and is olive-brown with darker streaks running through it; its lower shell, or plastron, is yellow.

Approximately 100 to 1,000 green turtles nest on Florida's beaches each year from June through late September.

Florida hosts one of the largest number of green turtle nests in the western Atlantic. More than 37,000 green sea turtle nests were documented in Florida in 2015, a record number. During the day, green turtles occupy shallow flats and seagrass meadows. In the evening, they return to their sleeping quarters of rock ledges, oyster bars and coral reefs. They nest all along Florida's east coast and most of the west coast.

The leatherback sea turtle is the largest species. Also listed as endangered by the federal government, most leatherbacks average 6 feet in length and weigh from 500 to 1,500 pounds, but the largest leatherback on record was nearly 10 feet long and weighed more than 2,000 pounds.

Leatherbacks look distinctively different from other sea turtles. Instead of a shell covered with scales or shields, leatherbacks are covered with a firm, leathery skin and have seven ridges running lengthwise down their backs. They are usually black with white, pink, and blue splotches and have no claws on their flippers.

They are found throughout the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, as far north as Alaska and Labrador. In Florida, they're usually found in coastal water with only 30 to 60 nests located in Florida each year.

The Kemp's ridley sea turtle is the rarest sea turtle in the world and is the most endangered. Fewer than 1,000 nesting females remain in the world.

Kemp's ridleys are the smallest of Florida's sea turtles, weighing only 85 to 100 pounds and measuring 2 to 2.5 feet in carapace length.

The majority of Kemp's ridleys nest on the shores of Rancho Nuevo, Mexico. However, occasionally turtle watchers find Kemp's ridley nests in Corpus Christi and along Florida's west coast. Females will lay two to three clutches each season with a 100 eggs per clutch. The incubation period for the eggs is 45-58 days

The hawksbill sea turtle is a small, agile turtle whose tortoise-colored shell is still used in some European and Asian countries to make jewelry, hair decorations and other ornaments, even though international trade in hawksbill products has been banned in much of the world.

Also designated endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act, Hawksbills weigh from 100 to 200 pounds as adults and are approximately 30 inches in shell length. Its body is oval-shaped, its head is narrow, and its raptor-like jaws give the hawksbill its name.

Hawksbills are the most tropical of the sea turtles and are usually found in lagoons, reefs, bays and estuaries of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. They are frequently spotted by divers off the Florida Keys, and nests in Florida are found primarily on reefs in the Florida Keys and along the southeastern Florida coast.

Birds Nesting On Florida Beaches

Several species of shorebirds and seabirds nest along the beaches of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of Florida.

These birds are particularly sensitive to human disturbance since environmental conditions on beaches are already harsh and unpredictable. For example, one dog passing near a colony of nesting seabirds can cause all the birds to panic and subsequently leave their nests dangerously exposed to the hot, boiling sun.

A good rule of thumb is if your presence agitates the birds, you're too close.

On July 13, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved new Species Conservation Measures and Permitting Guidelines for four beach-nesting bird species: the American oystercatcher, snowy plover, least tern and black skimmer. Click here to view the guidelines.

Designated as threatened by the state, black skimmers have large orange and black beaks which they use to skim the water’s surface for prey. They nest in colonies.

Least terns are small yellow-billed birds with white “foreheads.” They nest in colonies on beaches and frequently nest on rooftops as well. They are designated threatened by the state.

Designated by Florida as a threatened species, American oystercatchers have long red beaks which they use to dig for prey. They often return to the same nesting area each year.

Nesting from February to August along the Gulf Coast, snowy plovers are small, pale birds with short beaks. Snowy plover chicks begin to forage on their own just hours after hatching. Snowy plovers are designated threatened by the state as well as the federal government under the Endangered Species Act.

The FWC uses a cadre of volunteers designated as Imperiled Beach-Nesting Bird Permitted Monitors who are trained to assist the FWC with protecting imperiled beach-nesting birds and their nests.

In July 2022, the FWC Commission approved new the IBNB Species Conservation Measures and Permitting Guidelines that will take effect in September for anyone interested in becoming a shorebird monitor. Click here for information on becoming a permitted shorebird monitor.

To find out where shorebirds are nesting, visit the ShoreMapper.

Tracking Sea Turtle Nests

The Statewide Nesting Beach Survey program was initiated in 1979 under a cooperative agreement between the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to document sea turtle nesting in Florida.

The surveys are conducted through a network of permit holders consisting of federal, state and local park personnel; other government agency personnel; members of conservation organizations, university researchers; and turtle watcher volunteers, who are responsible for surveying approximately 215 beaches annually representing about 825 miles.

From 2011 to 2015, an average of 106,625 sea turtle nests (all species combined) were recorded annually on these monitored beaches.

Last year, the Florida Statewide Nesting Beach Survey documented 116,765 loggerhead nests, 37,028 green turtle nests and 1,848 leatherback nests.

There were also three Kemp's Ridley sea turtles nests documents last year on Florida beaches.

The Florida Hawksbill Project of the National Save the Turtle Foundation said there were no hawksbill nests recorded on Florida beaches last year.

Want To Help Sea Turtles?

• The FWC said the best thing people can do is leave hatchlings and eggs (even in exposed nests) on the beach.
• Don’t pick up sea turtle hatchlings crawling toward the ocean. They can handle big waves.
• Report dead, sick or injured sea turtles as well as lethargic hatchlings or hatchlings crawling away from the ocean.
• And if you find a nest that hasn't been roped off by the volunteer turtle watchers, call the FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922).