Panama City Beach Turtle Watch

In the past week, we have reached nest number 36 of the season. For those following along since last year, that exceeds our total nest count from 2024 (34 nests) and we found our second green nest of the season as well. We love our loggerheads, we really do, but the power and determination of the green nesting female is something we never tire of seeing.

Just like our first green, this green made her way to the dunes, dug an impressive body pit and followed much of the same path back to the water.

If you encounter a marked nest area, please respect it and avoid entering it for any reason (as indicated by the yellow FWC and blue local signage). Most everyone seems to comply but unfortunately we have seen footprints inside some of our nest areas, we need to all do our part to protect them!

Please remember, if you encounter a sea turtle on our sandy beach at night, please refrain from using flash photography, use no lights at all (causes disorientation), avoid her track and any disturbed sandy areas, observe from the back side of the turtle from a distance and contact PCB Police non-emergency at 850-233-5000. They will contact our on-call volunteers to respond and protect the turtle and the nest she lays.

Everyone can do their part leaving our beaches clean, dark and flat!

All activities performed under MTP-038.

One of our wildlife observers encountered a nesting green sea turtle the evening of July 1st by spotting the large flipper pattern in the sand from the water’s edge. The turtle was found nesting in the dunes. Volunteers responded, a passive identification tag was applied to turtle and measurements were taken. The tagging program allows us to report her info to a database in the event that any other organization finds her and reports her tag number, they will know she was nesting on our beach on July 1st (no tags were found upon initial inspection, thus the installation of a tag).

The nesting process for a green involves the movement of a lot of sand! The turtle digs a body pit putting her below the normal sand height, digs the chamber with her rear flippers, drops the eggs, and packs sand on top of them. She then uses her powerful front flippers and sprays sand behind her to cover the area well. Greens often nest in the dunes and that was the case for nest 31’s mama. She uprooted a few sea oats in the process and flattened some others with her approximate 300 lb body. After covering her nest well, she made a turn towards the water, slid down the dune she was in and made the 150’+ crawl back to the water. Fortunately for this turtle, she chose a dark quiet beach where she wasn’t disturbed by artificial light. Volunteers present captured some photos and videos using either night mode on the phone or a thermal monoscope.

The nest was marked for protection. Average incubation is about two months at which time we’ll start checking for signs of hatching following our permit guidelines. A few days after it hatches, we’ll conduct an excavation to assess the nest contents and record the nest contents and success.

While in Panama City Beach, if you encounter a sea turtle on the sandy beach at night, please refrain from using flash photography, use no lights at all (causes disorientation), avoid her track and any disturbed sandy areas, observe from the back side of the turtle from a distance and contact PCB Police non-emergency at 850-233-5000. They will contact our on-call volunteers to respond and protect the turtle and the nest she lays.

Remember, everyone can do their part leaving our beaches clean, dark and flat!

All activities performed under MTP-038 and MTP-286

When they aren’t out marking nests or monitoring for hatch activity, some of our volunteers conduct local education outreach.  We love when we are contacted by local organizations to share information about our program and protecting sea turtles.  The audiences range from elementary age students to local civic organizations and weekly guests at local hotels or condos.  In the last few months, we have had the chance to conduct education outreach at Rising Leaders Academy, Bay Day, Waller Elementary, Hutchinson Beach Elementary and Landmark Holiday Beach Resort.  We are always excited by the interest everyone has during our presentation and then the questions they ask.  We enjoy getting the opportunity to present and then let get an up close view of our educational specimens and items that help everyone understand the dangers to sea turtles and how they can help.

We are currently at 25 nests on our beach, all loggerhead nests.

Prior to this season, our highest nest count at this point in time was previously 23 nests, so we have set a new record having reached 25 nests so far! We’ll have to wait and see what the turtles have in store for us for the rest of the season, especially as we are leading into the typical peak of our nesting season. As previously mentioned, we don’t announce the locations of our nests and it takes about two months for a nest to incubate and hatch so we are still a little over a month from entering our hatching season.

Earlier this week, beach goers enjoyed an exciting evening and did everything just right when they encountered a nesting season turtle! Our volunteers received a call from local police with a report that a turtle had emerged from the water and was nesting. Our volunteers responded to find an officer and bystanders following all the proper turtle encounter guidelines. They were observing from a distance, not using white light or any flash photography. The volunteers explained the process the loggerhead was going through to nest. She received passive tags installed by our volunteers, finished nesting, disguised her nest area and returned to the water. Thank you to the beach goers for calling and for everyone’s cooperation allowing the loggerhead to successfully nest here on our beach!

While in Panama City Beach, if you encounter a sea turtle on the sandy beach at night, please refrain from using flash photography, use no lights at all (causes disorientation), avoid her track and any disturbed sandy areas, observe from the back side of the turtle from a distance and contact PCB Police non-emergency at 850-233-5000. They will contact our on-call volunteers to respond and protect the turtle and the nest she lays.

Remember, everyone can do their part leaving our beaches clean, dark and flat!

All activities performed under MTP-038 and MTP-286

We are still very much in our nesting season here on Panama City Beach. On average, it takes two months for our nests to hatch here so we won’t expect to be seeing hatchlings until late July at the earliest.

Our surveyors and volunteers have been busy, just the way we like it! Since June 1st we have had 1 false crawl (non-nesting emergence), marked 8 nests for protection, tagged 1 nesting turtle and relocated one of those eight nests out of the path of a storm drain. All of this activity was from loggerheads, the most common nester on our beach.

Of the 8 nests that have been marked in the last twelve days, we were notified by the police, the public, a Leave No Trace wildlife observer and our morning surveyors. Volunteers have been able to observe a nesting loggerhead while another volunteer installed passive tags. Volunteers also responded to a call from local police in the wee hours of the morning as they came upon a turtle nesting. And responded to reports from the public another night finding the nest after the turtle had returned to the water.

Nesting typically happens overnight, if you encounter a sea turtle on the sandy beach at night, please refrain from using flash photography, use no lights at all (causes disorientation), avoid her track and any disturbed sandy areas, observe from the back side of the turtle from a distance and contact PCB Police non-emergency at 850-233-5000. They will contact our on-call volunteers to respond and protect the turtle and the nest she lays.

Remember, everyone can do their part leaving our beaches clean, dark and flat!
All activities performed under MTP-038 and MTP-286

On May 31, 2025—during our 35th season of protecting sea turtles on Panama City Beach, Florida—we reached a truly remarkable milestone: our 1000th nest since the program began in 1991!

Fittingly, it was on May 31, 1991, that our very first nest was discovered. Now, exactly 34 years later to the day, surveyors located the 9th nest of this season—which also happens to be our 1000th overall. Even more amazing? Both the first and the 1000th nests were laid by loggerhead sea turtles, just 3/10ths of a mile apart.

This milestone is a celebration not only of the turtles but of the incredible community that has made this possible. Over 250 dedicated volunteers and surveyors have contributed their time, passion, and energy to help locate, mark, and protect each and every nest.

Sea turtles take 25–35 years to reach maturity and return to the beaches where they were born to lay their own eggs. That means the turtles nesting here today may very well be the hatchlings we protected in our early years. It’s a powerful reminder of why this work matters—and of the legacy we’re helping to build.

From all of us at the program: thank you to every volunteer, partner, and supporter who has made this journey possible. Here’s to the next 1,000 nests—and to the generations of sea turtles still to come.

As we head into the summer, we want to thank Pompano Joe’s Panama City Beach for their annual donation to our Panama City Beach Turtle Watch program. When you are in town this summer, stop by and give the Turtle Brew a try or pick up a 🐢 t-shirt!

🥁🐢Drum roll please….Nest 1 was found by morning surveyors today and has been marked by volunteers for protection! In the last week, we found three false crawls, where the turtle came onto the beach but didn’t nest, now we have our first 2025 Nest!

A loggerhead chose our beach overnight to lay her nest and our surveyors and volunteers put their FWC and local training to work to identify the crawl and mark it for protection. Per our permit guidelines, we do not post the locations of our nests. If you happen to see a marked nest on the beach, please refrain from entering the area so the egg chamber can stay well protected for the next 60-70 days. That is the average incubation time here on our beach and it is all dependent on various environmental factors. We commonly find our first nest around this time in May so we are right on track and hope to be finding many more nests over the next few months.

If you encounter a sea turtle on the sandy beach at night, please refrain from using flash photography, use no lights at all (causes disorientation), avoid her track and any disturbed sandy areas, observe from the back side of the turtle from a distance and contact PCB Police non-emergency at 850-233-5000. They will contact our on call volunteers to respond and protect the turtle and the nest she lays.

Remember, everyone can do their part leaving our beaches clean, dark and flat!

Our surveyors and volunteers have been patiently waiting for the sea turtles to arrive on our sandy beaches here in PCB. This morning one of our surveyors found a loggerhead crawl, a false crawl. The turtle emerged from the water but after checking out the area she returned to the water. We hope she will return somewhere along our beach tonight and this time successfully nest. Our volunteers and surveyors are all ready to get our first 2025 nest under our belt.

If you encounter a sea turtle on the sandy beach, stay behind her from a distance, don’t use any light (it dazes and disorients them) and contact us via PCB police non-emergency or our Turtle Watch hotline number. We’ll have our volunteers respond asap to help protect her and her nest.

PS that sargassum that is currently floating nearby and washing ashore, it is the habitat hatchling sea turtles are looking for once they hatch and enter the Gulf. In the Gulf, it provides food and protection for the hatchlings.

Panama City Beach Turtle Watch is entering it’s 35 season (May 1 – October 31) of protecting nesting and hatching sea turtles, under a state issued permit by FWC.

We patrol 18 miles of beach from St Andrews State Park to Camp Helen State Park. We are a non-profit organization with ATV surveyors that patrol the beaches just before sunrise looking for fresh sea turtle crawls as most nesting (and hatching) activity occurs overnight. When they find a crawl, the surveyor determines if it is a nest and if so, they contact one of our volunteers that have been through FWC and local training on how to properly identify the characteristics of the crawl and nest and mark it for protection. It takes about 2 months on our beaches for the eggs to incubate, hatch and emerge. At which time we also have volunteers checking nightly for disoriented hatchlings as artificial lighting is the number one threat to hatchling sea turtles. If disoriented hatchlings are found, they are collected and placed into the Gulf by volunteers. Volunteers then excavate the nest 3-4 days following the hatch to assess the nest contents. Throughout the season, we are gathering data and reporting it to FWC as part of their efforts to determine nesting trends and assessing the population.

While the general public may not be directly authorized to specifically help with the nest protection that our program performs, there are ways to help. Everyone can keep our beaches clean, dark and flat. Leave No Trace (local ordinance) when you leave the beach for the day (sundown to sunup), remove everything and dispose of trash properly. Keep it dark (local lighting ordinance for beachfront properties), turn off exterior lights, close your curtains, avoid using white light while on the beach (if necessary, use a red LED flashlight) and never use flash photography if you encounter a sea turtle on the beach. Lastly, leave the beaches flat, avoid leaving holes and knock down your sand castles. Doing all of this will help sea turtles avoid expending wasted energy. They are designed for the water so the fewer obstacles they face on the beach the better chance they have for nesting or hatching and then returning to the water.

The most common species nesting on PCB is the loggerhead (a threatened species), along with some greens and the occasional leatherback. We invite the everyone to follow here on our website http://turtlewatch.org or Facebook page, Panama City Beach Turtle Watch, for information throughout this season. We have closed our volunteer application process for the season but invite any locals or visitors to follow our events on Facebook. Starting mid-July, we begin announcing excavations, a chance for anyone in the area to come and watch our volunteers in action and get a chance to see the contents of a hatched nest.

If you see a sea turtle on the sandy beach, keep your distance, avoid using any light and contact us via Facebook or through PCB Police’s non-emergency phone number and they will reach out to our volunteers.