Panama City Beach Turtle Watch

We’re up to 45 nests including our third green nest found this morning! If you see nesting or hatchling turtles on Panama City Beach, immediately call the Beach Police at 850-233-5000, and Turtle Watch volunteers will be contacted. Please do not shine lights or take flash photos while turtles are on the beach.

Woohoo, hatching season has begun! A loggerhead nest at 4919 Spyglass Dr hatched this week and will be excavated Saturday July 27 at 5:30 pm. We will post dates and locations of all nest excavations on our Facebook page, so please check the link at bottom of this page for more info. As a reminder, we “excavate” nests 3-4 days after hatching as required by our state permit. We count hatched egg shells, unhatched eggs, and release any live hatchlings still in the nest (don’t always find live turtles).

High surf from the hurricane flooded all of our nests and washed away seven. Hatching success will be reduced at the remaining nests, but we still expect some to hatch. On a positive note, turtles will continue to lay nests through August, with the possibility of 5-10 more. Please call the Beach Police at 850-233-5000 if you see nesting turtles or hatchlings on Panama City Beach.

Nesting season is nearing the halfway point with 19 loggerhead and 3 leatherback nests currently on Panama City Beach. These nests should begin hatching toward the end of July. Report turtle encounters immediately to the Beach Police at 850-233-5000.

We found our third leatherback nest Saturday morning, this turtle encountered by volunteers after someone saw her nesting before sunrise and called Beach Police 850-233-5000. Surveyors also found two more loggerhead nests this weekend, bringing our total to 16 nests and 19 false crawls.

Surveyor Jennifer Sullivan got a treat this morning when she encountered this nesting loggerhead, our 11th of the season. Nesting is running above average, and we’re looking forward to seeing this turtle again. Please call the Beach Police at 850-233-5000 if you spot a nesting turtle.

Turtle Watcher Angela Barros encountered this beautiful leatherback turtle last night on Panama City Beach while accompanying cleaning crews enforcing our Leave No Trace ordinance. Angela used a FLIR infrared camera emitting no light during her work under FWC Consent Permit 19-038-1 and funded by the Bay County Tourist Development Council. Please help us by not using lights of any kind in the presence of sea turtles, take your stuff off the beach at night (tents, umbrellas, chairs), and immediately call the Beach Police 850-233-5000 to report nesting turtles. We’ve found five nests so far, including two made by endangered leatherbacks.

Hooray, our first nest was found this morning by surveyor Vanessa Wilson! It was made by a loggerhead, the most common turtle nesting on our beaches. We’re continuing the practice from last year of not reporting nest locations to protect them from harm. We will invite the public to nest excavations performed to determine hatching success. Nest locations will be posted on our Facebook page as they hatch, starting in late July or August when the hatching season begins. We hope you can join us!

No nests yet but yesterday surveyor Nancy Evou found a leatherback false crawl. The track was 4.5 feet wide which is small for an adult of this species. If you encounter a turtle on the beach at night, please do not shine lights or take flash photos which may cause the turtle to abandon her nesting attempt. Report turtle encounters immediately to the Beach Police at 850-233-5000.

Sea turtle season started today, and our survey team is on the job! If you spot a nesting turtle on Panama City Beach, please call the Beach Police at 850-233-5000, and they will forward your report to Turtle Watch. Remember not to shine lights on the turtle or take flash photos. We’re looking forward to another exciting season!