provided to The Santiva Chronicle
The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation’s sea turtle team has documented 765 loggerhead and 17 green sea turtle nests as of Wednesday, Aug. 17.
“While we’ve seen a steady decline in nesting loggerheads, the green sea turtles will likely continue to nest through September,” said Kelly Sloan, SCCF coastal wildlife director and sea turtle program coordinator. “We are hopeful we’ll document a few more on our beaches.”
Sloan added that two green sea turtle nests were recorded last week. This year, a total of 432 sea turtle nests have been inventoried and 24,164 hatchlings have emerged on our beaches.
SCCF this week is highlighting a loyal loggerhead named “Fighting Conch.” She was first tagged in 2016 and observed in 2018, 2020 and 2022 by SCCF staff. Since her first sighting, she has laid seven nests and had three falsecrawls or coming ashore without laying eggs.
This year, two of Fighting Conch’s nests have hatched, producing 73 hatchlings. SCCF Sea Turtle Biologist Jack Brzoza said it’s likely she has laid more nests, even though staff only sighted her twice this season.
“Loggerhead sea turtles lay an average of four nests per season, which helps increase the probability that some offspring survive even if one or more nests are negatively impacted by a storm or predation,” said Brzoza.
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