If you are visiting the Suncoast in May through October, you just may have an opportunity of a lifetime. May through October is sea turtle nesting season. Mature female turtles, weighing 250 to 400 lbs. and measuring more than three feet in length, come ashore and crawl to an area that they deem suitable for nesting. The turtle uses her hind flippers to dig a nest in the sand. She then lays, on average, 100 eggs. She covers the eggs with sand and crawls back to the water, having fulfilled her parenting duties.
In approximately 55 days, the eggs will hatch. The hatchlings are only two to three inches in length, and will start digging their way out of the nest. As they get to the surface, the temperature of the sand helps them determine when to emerge. The hatchling turtles will only emerge in the cool of night. This not only protects them from predators and dehydration, it also provides the means for them to navigate back to the waterline and out to sea. (It may help to consider that a hatchling’s eyes will be at about the same height as the top of an adult’s big toe, a very different view of the world from ours.)
Hatchling turtles head for brightness. At night, moonlight reflected off of the water will be brighter than moonlight shining on land. The baby turtles resemble tiny wind up toys as they make their frantic dash toward light, and hopefully their new sea home.
It is ironic that of all the naturally occurring predators, humans inadvertently have become one of the greatest challenges to the survival of the species, by use of lighting.
If hatchlings emerge from the nest and the brightest glow in the sky is coming from the lights inside a condominium or hotel room, the little guys get disoriented and head the wrong way, almost guaranteeing an ill fate.
Here’s How You Can Help
- Shield all lights that are visible from the beach. Use curtains to avoid light spill from inside your unit. Do not turn on porch or balcony lights. (This has an added benefit of allowing one to see more shooting stars.)
- Move beach furniture off of the beach at night.
- Have children fill in deep holes they might have dug (moats to sand castles, etc.)
- Don't use flashlights on the beach.
- Turtles often mistake plastic from wrappers for jellyfish, one of their favorite food sources.
- Observe nesting turtles from a distance. Do not disturb nests, nesting turtles, or hatchlings. (These are criminal offenses. Don’t come on vacation and leave on probation.)
- Respect marked nests and report crawls and unmarked nests and hatchlings to Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium. 941-388-4441.
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