Our teams had an exciting evening Thursday night. While the Leave No Trace enforcement team was patrolling the beach their wildlife observer, driving their UTV close to the high tide line (per FWC permit), spotted fresh sea turtle tracks. They stopped and found a loggerhead in the process of laying eggs. About that time, our volunteers were receiving a call from non-emergency beach police dispatch as someone had seen the nesting turtle and called to report it so they headed to the nest.
The wildlife observer, operating under a permit from FWC, was able to check the nesting loggerhead for any existing passive tags, but none were found. They were able to install tags, so if this nesting loggerhead is encountered anywhere else and the tags are reported to the tag tracking team, there will be a record of when and where the turtle was seen. During this process, beachgoers joined to watch the process, in aww of her size and the entire nesting process. She covered her nest and returned to the water. She may have already nested here in the panhandle this season and may nest again, as they can lay a nest every 2 weeks. Volunteers marked the nest for protection, nest 31!
We very much appreciate all beachgoers looking out for the well being of our nesting and hatching sea turtles. Please remember to refrain from using white light, red light was used sparingly during the tagging process and then no lights. Even without using lights everyone was able to see the turtle and what she was doing thanks to the moon glow.
