Four loggerhead sea turtles trapped in a nest that had hatched three days earlier were excavated and set free by Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch volunteers Glenn and Claudia Wiseman earlier this month at Tiffany Place in Holmes Beach. A crowd watched as they pulled the stragglers out of the nest, which is not an uncommon occurrence. After several luminaries released over the water by nearby beachgoers had disappeared and the coast was clear, they let the hatchlings scramble for the Gulf.

CINDY LANE | SUN
Two of the four loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings
that were set free from a nest that hatched three days earlier.

Loggerhead sea turtles

Nests laid: 318*
False crawls: 310
Nests hatched: 2
Hatchlings to the sea: 55
Nest disorientations: 0

*This record number includes all nests laid since the start of turtle season on May 1; in late June, Tropical Storm Debby destroyed an unknown number of nests that won’t be identified until their hatch dates have passed. The previous record was 244 nests in 1999.

Source: Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring