Sea turtles!
That’s right, we’re now halfway through nesting season and babies are starting to hatch after a record-breaking nesting season.
For the next two weeks, Sarasota residents and visitors can see just how many turtles are nesting on our beaches. During Mote Marine Laboratory’s Turtle Walk, groups are led by trained volunteers while they look for signs of turtle nesting.
Depending on the level of activity, groups can see false crawls, where a turtle comes ashore without laying eggs, new nests and evidence of sea turtle hatchlings (babies!).
See the dozens of tiny trails? Baby loggerhead sea turtles made their way to the water at about 5:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Most of the nests on Longboat Key, where the walks occur, are loggerhead sea turtles. Volunteers identify the type of turtle nest by the lines the mother makes in the sand. Loggerhead turtles crawl with alternating fins, leaving a spiral trail in the sand.
A thousand more nests have been laid this year compared with this time last year. After Tropical Storm Colin, the number of nests grew dramatically, said Connie Schindewolf, a trained volunteer who’s been helping sea turtles the last 30 years.
This is likely due to the unabated heat Sarasota’s had, with few storms to break it up. The sun acts as an incubator for the eggs.
Because of this, new nests are found practically every day by the Longboat Key Turtle Watch. Its 24 members mark off possible nests on a 1.5-mile stretch of the beach. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, they verify nests where they carefully dig into the sand, looking for eggs.
Charlene Donnelly, 55, digs for sea turtle eggs after seeing signs of a loggerhead sea turtle emergence on Longboat Key. By digging, she’s verifying whether eggs are buried there.
After marking the nest as verified and having eggs, it is reburied in the same style the mother did, with sand packed tight against the eggs. One nest can hold more than 100.
When the eggs are buried, they don’t have a gender, said Charlene Donnelly, a volunteer. This is determined by the amount of heat eggs are exposed to.
She remembers it with the expression “Cool guys, hot chicks.” Eggs closer to the surface are girls while those buried deeper are boys.
The top egg of a loggerhead sea turtle nest on Longboat Key. The nest, found Saturday, was buried overnight.
Turtle Walks will continue July 23 and 30. Participants should meet at the public beach access point at 4795 Gulf of Mexico Drive at 6:45 a.m. No, that’s not a typo, but it’s completely worth it.
The reason the walks are so early is because once the sun rises, it’s extremely hard to see a turtle’s tracks. Also, if a hatchling is found, it can’t be taken to the water during daylight.
Just remember, you’re sacrificing sleep for baby turtles.
No reservations are needed and parking is available. For more information, visit www.mote.org/news/article/learn-about-sea-turtles-during-free-walks-on-longboat-key.