Our surveyors and volunteers had a busy week. We are currently at 17 marked nests, all loggerheads, and we have recorded 10 false crawls (turtle didn’t nest).
This week we had a variety of activity. A couple times we had beach goers contact us through local police (or a Facebook message) when they saw a sea turtle on the beach. This allowed our volunteers to respond asap. Unfortunately, some of this week’s crawls turned into false crawls due to the turtle being disturbed/harassed. Please remember these are a federal and state protected species. You need to keep it dark and give them space if you are on the beach with them. The highlight of the week was some first year volunteers seeing a loggerhead finish covering her nest and return to the water, all thanks to some beach goers contacting our program asap.
While one group of volunteers was busy marking nests (day and night), we had another group of volunteers leading summer camp with PCB Parks and Recreation. Campers learned about the different species of sea turtles and learned how to assess a stranded turtle to provide data to FWC as well as performing a necropsy!
We appreciate all that our volunteers do, day or night, or both!
Please keep our beaches clean, dark and flat. Contact Panama City Beach non-emergency Police at 850-233-5000 if you see a sea turtle on the beach with no volunteers present.
