Sea turtle nesting season in Fla. gets early an start
NAPLES, Fla. – Sea turtle nesting season started early this year, and some believe the warm Gulf temperatures might be the reason.
Maura Kraus, Collier County’s principal environmental specialist, recorded the first nests beginning April 21. Barefoot Beach, Parkshore and Marco Island had visible nesting sites earlier than last year.
Kraus said there are 46 nests throughout the county, nearly 30 more than were found by this time last year.
“(Warmer water) kind of sparks them to start coming in and nest,” Kraus said.
Kraus also reported 63 false crawls so far this year, whereas 22 were recorded last year at this time. A false crawl is when a pregnant sea turtle comes to shore but doesn’t lay her clutch.
“Think we are going to have a busy summer!” she wrote in a weekly email update.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted record-like heat for Southwest Florida’s spring this year, and temperatures hit the 90s in mid-march.
Charles Gunnels, associate professor of animal behavior at Florida Gulf Coast University, said early nesting because of warming temperatures could be a bit of a double-edged sword.
On one hand, rising air and sea surface temperatures could be an indicator of climate change, but early nesting could indicate that sea turtles are properly responding to the changes.
Gunnels said it’s not yet clear if early nesting is a sign of an extended period.
“What is clear is that these hotter air temperatures increase the temperature of beaches and increased beach temperature affects the offspring as they become female biased,” he said. Warmer temperatures mean more females hatching and fewer males.
Loggerhead turtles in Florida have not shown good responsiveness to warming temperatures, but some northern populations have been able to respond properly, according to a 2012 study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.
“We don’t know why,” Gunnels said. “A lot of these studies are very recent and sort of catching up with expectations associated with climate change.
Our loggerheads in southern latitudes don’t seem to respond to sea surface temperatures, and if we do see a response, it’s a good sign.”
Meanwhile, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida monitors loggerhead sea turtle nests on Keewaydin Island. Kathy Worley, the Conservancy’s director of environmental science, has recorded eight nests so far on the island.
“It’s a little bit early, as we found the first nest at the end of April,” Worley said. “The water is a little warmer so that might have influenced them.”
Last year, the Conservancy found a record 448 nests on Keewaydin.
The beaches have been quiet because of coronavirus closures, but they’ve since reopened. Neither Worley nor Kraus has noticed any difference in the nesting habits with people coming back to the shores.
“The turtles don’t care, they come up at night and they nest,” Worley said. “People aren’t going to affect what turtles have done for centuries.”
But Kraus said she has spotted holes in the sand that people have neglected to fill back in.
These holes not only pose a risk to turtles coming ashore to nest, but also to the public. She’s urged people to fill in those holes, pick up trash and carry any umbrellas or chairs in with them before they leave the sand.
Once turtle nests are found on the beach, workers will rope them off to alert the public. It’s against Florida law to touch or disturb nesting turtles, hatchlings or the nests.
“Turtles are very sensitive to people and folks could cause turtles to go back in the water,” Kraus said. “If it happens enough, turtles could drop their clutch at sea.”