Sea turtle nesting season started Sunday, but the first nest was found the day before, Mote Marine Laboratory reports.
According to a Mote news release, a loggerhead nest was found April 30 on Longboat Key. A second loggerhead nest was found Sunday on Casey Key and a third was found today on Longboat. The threatened loggerhead sea turtle is the most common on local beaches, Mote says.
Mote scientists, interns and volunteers patrol beaches from Longboat Key to Venice every day to document nests during the season, which runs May 1 to Oct. 31.
“We started hearing reports of nests along southern parts of our coast last week,” Kristen Mazzarella, senior biologist with Mote’s Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program, said in the release. “So we were expecting our first local nest, and we hope this nest will be the start of another successful nesting season,”
The first nest of 2015 was found April 25.
If you new to the area be sure and check out our bitchy guide to turtle nesting season.