October 10, 2021
Hello Châteaux Sur Mer!
I can’t believe we are into our last month of sea turtle season! It's been over 4 weeks since we have seen any new turtle activity, when two green false crawls and a nest were discovered in early September. We are still in the process of proofing our data so this number is subject to change but currently this year’s nest count is 931 total nests between Sanibel and Captiva. This is incredible because it ties our 2020 record of 931 nests, so two very good years back to back!
As most of you may know, Captiva is undergoing a beach renourishment project this year. Starting July 2nd, all of Captiva’s nests had to be relocated onto Sanibel, so the nests could fully incubate without any disturbances from the project. The renourishment project brought our team of volunteers and staff a little more work than normal to ensure that all of our nests could incubate with no additional stresses, but definitely worth it in the end! Overall, we relocated 79 nests from Captiva to Sanibel! That brings the total to 7,351 eggs, which resulted in 3,811 hatchlings emerging from these nests! There are still 3 of these relocated nests incubating on Sanibel.
There are only 9 nests left incubating on Sanibel, one of which, Nest 502, is still incubating on your beach. Nest 515 is also on the beaches of Châteaux Sur Mer, although it successfully hatched earlier this week! After a nest hatches we wait a few days before inventorying it so any remaining hatchlings have the opportunity to get out the natural way. Nest 502 will be inventoried and off the beach in the next couple of days! From all of the nests on your community’s beach this season, you supported 12 relocated nests. These 12 nests had a total of 1,078 eggs, which resulted in 631 emerged hatchlings! When nesting was busiest, our relocation project required us to patrol Captiva at night so the nests could be relocated before 9 AM per FWC policy. This gave us the unique opportunity to find out which mama turtles were nesting on Captiva, since we do not typically patrol Captiva at night. One of the nests we relocated to the beaches of Châteaux Sur Mer belonged to a loggerhead who had previously nested earlier this summer on Sanibel. This summer was SCCF’s first encounter with this mama and we named her Honeysuckle after the flower! Twenty-two hatchlings emerged from her relocated nest.
Have a great weekend and thank you for supporting sea turtle conservation!
Hollis
September 24, 2021
Good afternoon Chateaux Sur Mer!
There are currently 49 nests still incubating on Sanibel. We inventoried our last nest on Captiva a little over a week ago, so sadly there are no longer any nests left on Captiva. It is sad to see sea turtle season slowly coming to an end, but it has been a very successful summer. At this point in time, 44,890 hatchlings have hatched from Sanibel and Captiva!! Even just reaching the water is an accomplishment for sea turtles, as they face many threats on land. Tropical storms and extreme high tide events, both of which we experienced this summer, can flood the nests. Nests are typically able to handle a little bit of wash over, but if they are inundated for a substantial period of time the probability of them hatching decreases. Sea turtle nests face predation threats from other animals, such as coyotes and fire ants. Hatchlings can also get disoriented by unnatural light sources and head away from the ocean, which makes them more vulnerable to predation and exhaustion. We are proud of all the hatchlings on Sanibel that have successfully reached the Gulf!! Although making it into the Gulf is impressive, these turtles will continue to face dangers in the water. Once in the water they are subject to ingesting pollution, boating accidents, and accidental capture in fishing lines. It is a hard world out there for our turtles, but I know we all have and will continue to do our part in protecting them.
On the beaches of Chateaux Sur Mer there are 5 nests still incubating. One of these nests belongs to a green sea turtle and the rest belong to loggerhead sea turtles. Since these nests were laid so late in the season, the majority were not observed by our night patrol so we do not know which mama turtle laid the nests, with the exception of Nest 498. Nest 498 was laid the last day that our night crew was still patrolling, by Epazote. I mentioned Epazote in my last update because we had recently inventoried a very successful nest of hers on your beach. Hopefully this nest fares as well as her first one did. She seems to have a preference for your beach considering that two of her three nests this summer were laid on the Chateaux Sur Mer beachfront. I am happy to announce that 3,036 hatchlings have emerged from your hatched nests!!
Have a great weekend,
Hollis
September 12, 2021
Hello Chateaux Sur Mer!
In 2011, a green sea turtle nested on September 2nd. Until now, this nest has held the record for the latest nest of the season. This week we have had 2 additional green sea turtle nests, both of which had lay dates that surpassed the previous record. Needless to say, it is a huge deal to be getting not one but two nests this late in the season!! These nests were laid on West Gulf Drive and on the east end of the island. Flippers crossed we get another late nester that chooses the beaches of Chateaux sur Mer!
I attached a photo of a green sea turtle hatchling to this email, so you can see what is in store once these new nests hatch! I hope you enjoy it!
Currently, there are 7 nests still incubating on your beach. Thirty-two of your nests have hatched and 2,262 hatchlings emerged from those nests! Those nests had an average hatch success rate of 82%, which is very high! Hopefully the remaining nests will be just as successful.
Yesterday we inventoried a nest laid by a loggerhead named Epazote. Epazote was first tagged by our night patrol in 2018, when all turtles were named after spices. We saw her nesting 3 other times on Sanibel this season. Out of the 77 eggs in her nest, 66 hatchlings emerged and headed into the gulf.
Thank you all for keeping our beaches clean and safe for marine life(:
Hollis
August 27, 2021
Hello Chateaux Sur Mer!
Sea turtle nesting is slowing down but still not quite over!! Since my last email, 7 new nests have been laid on Sanibel. Of these 7 new nests, five belong to loggerhead sea turtles and two belong to green sea turtles. The majority of these new nests were laid on the West end of the island, with the exception of one loggerhead nest on the East end. One of the green sea turtle nests was actually laid on the beaches of Chateaux Sur Mer!! Since our night crew is no longer patrolling this late in the season, we unfortunately don’t know which of our green sea turtle mamas this nest belongs to.
In early June, a green sea turtle named Dellora nested on your beach. Her nest recently hatched!! After inventorying it we found that her nest consisted of 53 eggs, forty-six of which successfully hatched. All 46 of these hatchlings made it out of the nest without requiring any assistance! Only six eggs in her nest didn't hatch.
At this point in time, there are 14 nests still incubating on your beach. Twenty-five nests on your beach have hatched. These 25 hatched nests have had a total of 1,883 eggshells within them, meaning that 1,883 sea turtles have hatched on your beach! Additionally, the average clutch count of these inventoried nests is roughly 85 eggs per nest.
Hopefully we continue to see successful hatches on your beach! Thank you for your conservation efforts!!
Have a great weekend,
Hollis
August 13, 2021
Hello Chateaux Sur Mer!
Loggerhead nesting is beginning to slow down. At this point in time, 896 loggerhead nests have been laid on Sanibel and Captiva! Although it is still possible that we will have a few more late mamas, our current loggerhead nest count is not expected to change too drastically this late in the season. With this in mind, we were very surprised this week to have a day nesting loggerhead! This loggerhead nested in the heat of the day near the Rabbit Road Beach Access. After examining her flipper tags we recognized this turtle as Flame Lily! Flame Lily was first tagged by our night patrol team in early July of this year. She came back and nested a second time later in July, on the East end of the island. Her day nest this week marks her third time nesting on Sanibel. She has a tendency to travel high into the dune and nest in the vegetation. This nesting technique could be advantageous during hurricane season. I attached photos of Flame Lily to this email, taken by Audrey Albrecht.
Although loggerhead nesting is slowing down, there is a possibility that we will still continue to see green sea turtle nesting. In 2019, we had a green sea turtle mama that nested on August 29, which is incredibly late in the season. Currently, we have 22 green sea turtle nests laid on Sanibel.
Since my last update, on the beaches of Chateau Sur Mer, two additional loggerhead nests have been laid, bringing your nest count up to 38! So far, 15 nests have hatched on your stretch of beach! Thank you for doing your part in keeping the beach sea turtle friendly!!
Best wishes,
Hollis
7-30-21
Hello Chateaux Sur Mer!
Hatchling season is really beginning to pick up! Our hatchlings get enough nutrition from their embryonic egg sac that they are able to swim for 3-5 days without food. The hatchlings will swim until they reach the Loop Current. The Loop Current is a flow of warm water that travels through the Gulf of Mexico, past the Florida Keys, and up the Atlantic Seaboard. Once the hatchlings reach the Loop Current they are able to feed on small animals living in the sargassum seaweed. They are also able to use this seaweed for shelter as they are carried out to the Atlantic ocean. So far, 7 nests have hatched on the beaches of Chateaux Sur Mer. These nests have had an average hatch success rate of 91.7%, which is incredible! Three of these nests were laid by tagged mama turtles. Nest 115, which contained 87 eggs, was laid by Striate Bubble. Striate Bubble was first tagged on Sanibel in 2016, the year all turtles were named after shells. Nest 167, which contained 113 eggs, was laid by Thai Basil. Nest 180, which contained 83 eggs, was laid by Jessamine. Thai Basil and Jessamine were both tagged this summer and named after flowers. I attached photos below that Shane Antalick, SCCF’s nature photographer, took of a Sanibel hatching heading out to sea.
At this point on Sanibel we have 20 green sea turtle nests! Three of these green nests have hatched and had an average hatch success rate of 87.7%. Unlike loggerheads, whose nesting is beginning to slowly taper off this time of year, green sea turtles typically nest later in the summer. So hopefully we will continue to see more green turtles.
Overall 36 nests have been laid on the beaches of Chateaux Sur Mer this summer, thank you for being such good environmental stewards and providing a safe place for these nests to incubate!!
Best wishes,
Hollis
7-15-21
Hello Chateaux Sur Mer!
Sorry for the delay in getting you your sea turtle update, last week it was all hands on deck trying to recover nests lost by Tropical Storm Elsa. Tropical Storm Elsa produced strong southern winds that caused several sea turtle nests to lose their marking stakes and screen. After several long days in the field and lots of digging, we can confirm that 45 nests were lost on Sanibel. Although losing nests is unfortunate, this number is much smaller than what we had originally anticipated. Currently, there are 556 nests that have been laid on Sanibel and were safe throughout the storm. Of these nests, 542 belong to loggerhead sea turtles and 14 belong to green sea turtles.
On the beaches of Chateaux Ser Mur, there are currently 32 sea turtle nests. Fortunately, no nests on your beach were lost to Tropical Storm Elsa! In other good news, you have had your first nest hatch! This nest had a hatch success rate of 95.7%.
Nest 440 on your beach was laid by a sea turtle named Nutmeg. Nutmeg is one of the largest loggerhead sea turtles we have tagged on Sanibel. Her shell is roughly 4 feet long! She is loyal to Sanibel and has been nesting here for years, in 2019 we even saw her 12 times! I attached a photo of Nutmeg nesting below.
Hopefully we will continue to see successful nests and hatches on your stretch of beach!
Best wishes,
Hollis
7-9-2021
Dear Adopt A Beach Participants,
I know you normally hear from Hollis with sea turtle updates, but she and the rest of the team have been working nonstop on the beach to assess the impacts from Elsa. We hit the beach as soon as it was safe on Wednesday morning and found that 125 nests on Sanibel and Captiva had no stakes or screen present. This seems like a significant loss, but the good news is that sometimes the eggs are still there, even when the marking stakes wash away! We have a Trimble that takes highly accurate GPS locations with 3cm accuracy, and we are currently digging at all 125 sites to determine whether the nest is still incubating or if the eggs actually washed out.
Hollis will be in touch next week when we have a better idea of how our nests fared in the storm...I won't spill the beans on the rest of the news, but just a quick teaser - 723 nests have been laid on our beaches, and 38 of them have already hatched! We're at the very beginning of hatching season so there are many more hatchlings to come
I'll end on a note of gratitude. So many residents came out to help after the storm, and it was another heartwarming reminder of how devoted our community is to the turtles and each other. Thank you for supporting our efforts in so many ways.
Happy Turtling!
Kelly
6-25-2021
Hello Châteaux Sur Mer!
It is time for another sea turtle update! As of today, Sanibel has 400 loggerhead nests and 10 green sea turtle nests. Captiva has 116 loggerhead nests. In addition to Dellora and Millie, the satellite tagged green sea turtles that have been nesting on our beaches, two new green sea turtles have nested on Sanibel since my last update! Our night survey team encountered and tagged these new greens, they named them Greenbrier and Gardenia. We hope that Greenbrier and Gardenia continue to nest on our beaches and even more green sea turtles make their way to Sanibel! In other good news, the first nest hatched on Sanibel and it had an 87.5% hatch success rate. I attached a photo of a morning straggler coming out of its nest.
Currently there are 27 sea turtle nests on your stretch of beach! These nests primarily belong to loggerhead sea turtles, but you also have one nest from Dellora, the green sea turtle! This week there was a day nesting loggerhead who nested on the beaches of Châteaux Sur Mer. I attached a photo of her walking back to the Gulf. She nested in the heat of the day around 3:00 p.m. Interestingly enough, this same turtle was tagged by our night survey team in May. They named her Morning Glory because they found her nesting at the later end of their survey. It seems like Morning Glory has a habit of nesting at unusual times!
As always, we thank you for your continued support, providing sea turtle mothers and their hatchlings a safe place to nest!
I look forward to giving the Châteaux Sur Mer community their next update, if you have any questions or comments in the meantime please let me know.
Best wishes,
Hollis
6-12-21
Hello Châteaux Sur Mer!
It’s that time of the year again! Time to kick off adopt-a-beach reports. My name is Hollis Hatfield and I will be keeping you updated on sea turtle nesting this summer! A little bit about me, I am originally from Raleigh, NC. I received my undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech in Wildlife Conservation and my graduate degree from University College, Dublin in Wildlife Conservation and Management. I first came to Sanibel in September of 2020, as a communications and development intern for the “Ding” Darling Wildlife Society. I quickly fell in love with Sanibel and feel very blessed that I have been able to extend my time here as an SCCF intern.
Sea turtle nesting season is really beginning to pick up. Between Sanibel and Captiva 331 nests have been laid. These nests have been primarily loggerhead, but we have also had 5 green sea turtle nests as well. These green sea turtle nests belong to two previously tagged individuals, Millie and Dellora. Millie was tagged on Sanibel in 2017. Dellora was first tagged on Keewaydin in 2017 and has nested on Sanibel in 2018 and 2019. Through our satellite tagging study, we learned that Dellora "lives" in an area just west of Cape Sable when she's not nesting, and Mille is our only "resident" turtle, staying within 25 km of the shoreline even when she's finished nesting.
Currently there are 17 nests on your beach! All but one of these nests belong to loggerhead sea turtles. Nest #253 belongs to Dellora, the green sea turtle we discussed above. In 2019, Dellora’s nests had a 91.4% average hatch success rate! Hopefully her current nest will fare just as well, if not better. I attached a photo our night survey team took of Dellora nesting.
In late May, a loggerhead turtle who was not previously tagged was found nesting on your beach (Nest #180). We named this turtle Jessamine, as all new turles will be named after flowers this summer. We are excited to see how her nest does and hopefully she will continue to nest in this area.
Thank you for contributing and helping us kick off this turtle season!!
Information received from Kelly Sloan on May 14, 2021
The sea turtles are officially here! Last month, on April 27th, our first loggerhead nest of 2021 was laid on the east end of Sanibel. Today we are up to 47 nests on Sanibel and Captiva! As we prepare for another exciting and productive season, we want to take a moment to reflect on what your contributions made possible last year.
Breaking Nesting Records in 2020
Despite a Covid-challenged season, we broke a number of nesting records last year – the earliest crawl ever seen on our beaches (April 1), the most loggerhead nests on Sanibel (656) and Captiva (264) and the most nests for all species combined (931).
Researching Hatchling Sex Ratios on Sanibel
In a state that has produced almost exclusively female hatchlings in recent years, males are becoming increasingly important. We are excited to report that Sanibel may be contributing these valuable male hatchlings to Florida’s loggerhead population! In fact, preliminary results from a nest laid in 2019 suggest a very high male to female ratio. Learning more about the beach conditions that contribute to the development of male embryos has global implications, and the funds raised through our Adopt A Beach program have directly contributed to the data collection and analysis for this project.
Evaluating the Lingering Effects of a Catastrophic Red Tide Bloom
After witnessing the 2018 red tide bloom first-hand, we became committed to understanding the long term impacts to our nesting females and their hatchlings. Over the winter our staff was busy analyzing samples collected in 2019 & 2020, and we found that all of the hatchlings sampled in 2019 tested positive for brevetoxin exposure. So far, the 2020 concentrations are even higher. The next step will be evaluating how the transfer from mom to hatchling might be happening, and whether the toxins in the hatchlings impacted their development or contributed to their mortality.
Eliminating Single Use Plastics
We know the ocean plastics crisis has a severe impact on marine life - including sea turtles. This year, thanks to your help, we are phasing out the single use plastic supplies that were previously used to mark nests. We will be using metal signs and zip ties and biodegradable flagging tape instead of their plastic alternatives. Although the cost is significantly higher, this important change will directly benefit our ocean and the wildlife that relies on it.
Contributing to Sea Turtle Conservation
Now that the season has officially kicked off and many more nests are sure to follow, it’s time to begin thinking about how our community can help conserve coastal resources on Sanibel and Captiva. As always, please help us in reminding beachgoers to fill in holes, remove furniture and litter, and turn off their lights at night.