Under our FWC MTP-038, we conduct a nest excavation three to four nights following a hatch (or at such time that a nest hasn’t shown signs of hatch and is beyond it’s reasonable incubation period). Where possible, we announce those excavations on our Facebook page under Panama City Beach Turtle Watch under the Events section. Knowing not everyone can attend in person and that some beachgoers saw the nest during their visit and may be interested in the outcome, we try to do a Facebook Live of the excavation. If we are unable to Facebook Live, we’ll try to do a video and worst case we’ll post the results and maybe some pictures. Immediately following the excavation, we show samples of the nest contents to everyone in attendance.
For those of you not on Facebook, here is a video of the samples from nest 32. We had hatched eggs, unhatched eggs that won’t hatch at this point and in the chamber was a single hatchling that didn’t make it out four nights prior when the rest of the hatchlings emerged. This hatchling was released that evening into the Gulf.