On Monday, April 16, the SCCF’s Sea Turtle Program reported the first sea turtle nest of the 2018 season!

For only the 3rd time in the history of the SCCF Sea Turtle Program, a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nested on Sanibel Island. The Kemp’s ridley is one of the smallest and most endangered species of sea turtle in the world. We are beyond thrilled that our first nest of the season was laid by a rare Kemp’s ridley!

Last year SCCF’s Sea Turtle Program had a total of 684 nests on Sanibel – 650 loggerhead nests and 34 green nests – and 189 nests on Captiva. Both the loggerhead and the green nest counts for Sanibel surpassed previous records. 2017 was the fourth year in a row that Sanibel has broken historic nesting records, so we are hopeful that conservation efforts from the past 20-30 years are starting to pay off and sea turtle nest counts will continue to rise. 

More information on SCCF’s Sea Turtle Program can be found here.

Please keep our beaches sea turtle friendly:

• Turn off or shield all lights that are visible from the beach. Do not use flashlights or cell phone lights on the beach. If necessary, use amber or red LED bulbs.
• Do not disturb the screens covering nests. They prevent predators from eating the eggs and the hatchlings emerge through the holes without assistance.
• Remove all beach furniture and equipment from the beach at night.
• Dispose of fishing line properly to avoid wildlife entanglement.
• Fill in large holes that can trap hatchlings and nesting sea turtles.
• Do not disturb nesting turtles – please do not to get too close, shine lights on, or take flash photos of nesting sea turtles.
• Pick up litter.

If you have any questions or concerns about nesting or injured turtles please call the SCCF Sea Turtle Hotline at (978) 728- 3663.