ENGLEWOOD — The 2024 sea turtle nesting season doesn't officially start until May 1, but that's not stopping a few sea turtles from pre-gaming the season.
Several turtles have already nested on Venice Beach and Manasota Key this week.
The volunteer turtle patrollers with the Coastal Wildlife Club Turtle Patrollers reported several nests on Manasota Key in Englewood over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Mote Marine Laboratory’s Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program documented its first local sea turtle nest of the 2024 season on Venice Beach.
“Well I told my friend this morning that if I'm gonna be up and on the beach before the sun, it sure is nice to find something besides sharks teeth,” Coastal Wildlife Club patrol volunteer Karen Gilbert said.
She said seeing the "beautiful crawl" and "perfectly formed nest" made the work worth it.
"Seeing these turtles come up and do what they've been doing for millions of years never gets old," Gilbert said. "The last nest of the season will be just as exciting as the first nest of the season."
The club holds a permit for marking and working with turtles and their nests on the beaches of Manasota Key.
A few miles to the north, Mote’s Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program set out to search for nests April 15. They survey 35 miles of beaches from Longboat Key to Venice each day.
“Even though sea turtle nesting season isn’t officially supposed to start until May 1, we like to be prepared and patrol early to make sure we catch the first signs of nesting on our beaches,” said Melissa Macksey, senior biologist and conservation manager of the program. "Our enthusiastic volunteers and interns make patrolling 35 miles of beaches possible — They are the reason we were able to catch this early nest.”
Loggerheads are the most common species on Southwest Florida nesting beaches, followed by endangered green sea turtles. In recent years, Sarasota County has also hosted a handful of endangered Kemp’s ridleys, among the smallest and rarest sea turtles, according to Mote's news release.
The Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program documents nesting activities, which allows them to analyze trends, phenological shifts (timing of nesting events in relation to the seasons), nesting density (the number of nests in a given area), emergence success (the number of eggs in a nest that produces live hatchlings that surface), environmental impacts, effects of nest site selection and more.
With this data, the group can continue their long-term studies on local sea turtles. Like the last four decades, they will mark each nest with yellow stakes and flagging tape while observing and collecting data.
Long-term studies provide valuable insights on turtle conservation efforts. In 2023, Mote reported 4,284 nests from Longboat Key to Venice said the press release.
“Now that we have identified the first nest of the season, we implore beachgoers to be conscious of the sea turtles while enjoying Florida’s unparalleled beaches,” Macksey said. “Hatchlings will have a better chance at surviving if everyone does their part.”
The public can view Mote’s weekly counts of sea turtle nests within the patrol area at mote.org/2024nesting.
Over on Manasota Key, CWC Volunteer Karen Gilbert found her first nest on Zone Four on the key. Similar to Mote volunteers, the CWC also starts looking for nests beginning Apr. 15.
"We had a record season last year, and the year before that was a record as well," CWC Volunteer Carol McCoy previously said. "We will wait to see what the turtles have in store for us."
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