ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Despite the loss of 200 loggerhead sea turtle nests due to flooding caused by Debby, which passed by Anna Maria Island as a tropical storm on Aug. 4-5, it has been a successful nesting year so far with numbers surpassing those of 2023, and, in some cases, record high numbers.
“It’s been a busy week with a lot of nest excavations – where we count the eggs in the nest to see how well the nest did after it hatched or is overdue,” Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella wrote in an Aug. 30 email. “We’ve had a few hatches this week and we excavate hatched nests three days after the hatch is observed – to allow all the hatchlings to emerge from the nest on their own. However, due to the Tropical Storm Debby, most of our excavations continue to be 70-day (overdue nest) excavations.”
Mazzarella wrote that 135 nests are still incubating on Island beaches.
With a total nest count of 685, there were 200 complete washouts of nests this year, compared to 82 washouts in 2023, when 404 nests were produced.
A new loggerhead nest was found on the Island last week, and volunteers continue to look for new nests and false crawls as well as checking the remaining nests until they hatch and are excavated.
LIGHTING IMPROVEMENTS
Florida Power & Light (FPL) has started installing shields on several streetlights along Gulf Drive in Bradenton Beach. The streetlights could be seen from the beach, and may have led to the death of an adult female sea turtle that nested nearby, wandered into the road and was struck by a car in June.
“These shields will direct the light onto the road and make the lights less visible from the beach, creating a more turtle-friendly environment and helping save sea turtle hatchlings,” Mazzarella wrote. “We thank FPL, City of Bradenton Beach, Manatee County and FWC for their help in making this possible.”
