Sea Turtles

Sea Turtle Research and Monitoring

	Sea Turtle Nesting Stats as of Aug. 30
		Nests	False Crawls	Hatches
	Sanibel East End	20	64	5
	Sanibel West End	136	246	71
	Captiva	64	118	35
	TOTAL	220	428	111

For statistics for individual nests this season, click here.  See below right for links to past season statistics.

Please do not disturb nesting sea turtles.  There have been reports of several nesting attempts disturbed by onlookers.  If a turtle fails after several nesting attempts, she will eject her eggs into the Gulf, so failed attempts -- false crawls -- are serious. 
Click here for more info.

The News-Press ran a story about the season on Friday, July 16, with interviews with SCCF's Amanda Bryant and also with Eve Haverfield.

SCCF's Amanda Bryant was on NBC-2 on Friday, May 13 talking about the first nests of the season on Sanibel and Captiva islands.

Will the Deepwater Horizon spill affect sea turtle nesting?  Click here for some info.
  
Read about our 2009 Leatherback Sea Turtle nest.

Sea turtles are among the world’s oldest creatures. These ancient reptiles have long fascinated people around the world. On Sanibel and Captiva, where the beaches provide a subtropical nesting area for threatened loggerhead and endangered green turtles, more than 100 island residents volunteer each summer as part of the Conservation Foundation’s Sea Turtle Research and Monitoring Program. The program operates under a permit from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Each day during nesting season, May to October, the 18 miles of Gulf beaches from the Sanibel Lighthouse to the tip of Captiva are checked beginning at dawn.In some areas, volunteers walk designated zones of beach. On other stretches, the patrol is done by beach vehicle. Nests are identified and marked for monitoring and protection. Later in the season new hatches are evaluated and recorded. The statewide collection of data helps promote programs that improve the chances for sea turtles to survive. Among other components of SCCF’s sea turtle program are projects ensuring that beach habitat is suitable for nesting and the co-ordination of data collection on local sea turtle strandings. You can contact the Sea Turtle office by e-mail: seaturtle@sccf.org

A loggerhead burying her nest	A rare daytime hatch.  Note the hatchling crawling to the right	Nests are dug 3 days after they hatch by an SCCF permittee, who counts the shells and rescues any stragglers.