9-16-22
Hello Adopt-a-Beach friends & turtle ambassadors! In my last update to you, I mentioned that our most recent nest was laid only a few days prior. Today we are nearing 25 days since our last nest was laid so it is safe to say at this point that we likely will not be seeing any new nests on our beaches this season (although green turtles can nest through September☺). I hope you have enjoyed hearing about new nests arriving on your beach throughout this summer, but from here on out, I will mostly be reporting hatching news as we finish up the rest of the season. As of today, SCCF is still monitoring 42 nests, and have already inventoried 675 nests so far this season, resulting in 37,097 hatchlings making it into the Gulf thus far this summer! Recently among Florida’s sea turtle community, there have been a lot of questions and discussions about how warming temperatures are impacting sea turtle populations. With Sanibel and Captiva being the site for such a significant amount of turtle activity, I thought this update would be a productive time to talk about how this issue is directly related to your beach and of course, the islands of Sanibel and Captiva as a whole. Projected increases in global temperatures are predicted to produce extreme sex ratio bias in animals with temperature-dependent sex determination. Interestingly, sea turtles lack sex chromosomes (X and Y in humans) and instead their sex is determined by the incubation environment – primarily the nest temperature. A little saying we like to use to remember this concept is “hot chicks, cool dudes” as warmer nests produce more females and cooler nests produce more males. An alarming worldwide female-biased sex ratio of sea turtles has already been documented and it appears to be growing. With drastic environmental changes predicted to occur within this century, sea turtles are at risk of unsustainable sex ratios and high egg mortality that could have major implications on their population. An ongoing project conducted by Florida Atlantic University (FAU) found zero male sea turtle hatchlings between 2015 through 2017 on Florida beaches. For a species that takes 30 years to reach reproductive age, having an entire generation without males would have devastating impacts on the population. In 2019 our sea turtle program conducted research to explore sex ratios on our islands, and we have also used temperature probes in 2021/2022 for a separate project that may help shed light on ongoing shifts in sex ratios. Below you will see a photo of a microstation being installed by SCCF staff, the probes they are inserting into the nest collect readings every 15 minutes of not only temperature, but also moisture and groundwater levels. Your donations to the Adopt A Beach fund helped make these projects possible, and we are immensely grateful for your contributions and support of our program.
SCCF Staff inserting moisture and temperature probes into a freshly laid sea turtle nest (2021). Photo by Shane Antalick
Now that we have touched on this matter, it is time to see what has been happening on your beach since my last update! As of today Chateaux Sur Mer has 2 nests still incubating on its beach, and 18 already hatched nests, 4 of which have hatched and been inventoried by SCCF staff and volunteers since my last update. From those 4 nests, 280 hatched egg shells were found during our 3 day post-hatch inventories, meaning that in the past few weeks, your beach has seen 280 hatchlings make their way to the Gulf! I will have more updates for you soon, as we wait for the remaining 2 nests to hatch! Have a great weekend! -Carley
More information: Click here → Sea turtles are being born mostly female due to warming—will they survive?
Click here → Hotter summers mean Florida's turtles are mostly born female
Click here → Sea Turtle Nesting: What Is Known and What Are the Challenges under a Changing Climate Scenario
8-27-22
Good Morning Adopt-a-Beach friends!
I hope you all have been having a good couple of weeks. I am very excited to report to you all that there has been a significant amount of nests hatching not only on your beach, but on Sanibel and Captiva as a whole!
In my last update on August 12th, I mentioned that there were 424 nests still being monitored by SCCF staff and volunteers and 312 already inventoried. This week SCCF is still monitoring 194 nests, and have conducted inventories on 536 nests so far this season. This means that since my last update, 230 nests have hatched between Sanibel and Captiva beaches releasing thousands of hatchlings into the Gulf!
While nesting has slowed down significantly lately with our newest nest having been laid only this past weekend, we are beginning to think that we are just about done with nesting for this year and that the remainder of this season's turtle activity will be in the form of hatches. Though it is unlikely that we will get any more nests this season, the latest nest laid in 2021 was on September 4th, so it is possible that we could get one or two more nests in the upcoming week or so, though it is rare. If you would love to see another mother turtle make her way up onto your beach to nest this season, keep your flippers crossed these next few days!
As for what's going on with your beach specifically, let's see what the last couple weeks have looked like! As of today Chateaux Sur Mer has 6 nests still incubating on its beach and 14 already hatched and inventoried nests. Since my last update 6 of those already hatched nests were inventoried including one laid by SCCF’s tagged turtle Meyer Lemon. This is the 4th nest that SCCF has documented Meyer Lemon laying on the western end of Sanibel since she was first tagged in 2019. After we inventoried this nest, we found 56 hatched eggshells, meaning that Meyer Lemon had 56 of her hatchlings make their way to the Gulf! We hope that Meyer Lemon continues to choose Chateaux Sur Mer and the western end of Sanibel as her nesting location for years to come! As for the other 13 nests that have hatched on your beach in the past 2 weeks, SCCF staff and volunteers have counted 377 hatched eggshells during our routine post-hatch inventories. This means that overall in the past 2 weeks, your beach has had 433 hatchlings swim into the Gulf!
Below you will find some adorable photos of Loggerhead hatchlings taken by SCCF’s photographer Shane Antalick. I hope these photos will put a smile on your face and make you feel just a little bit more connected to the nests on your beach!
I will have more updates to come in the next few weeks! Have a great weekend!
-Carley
8-12-22
Hello Adopt-a-Beach friends & turtle ambassadors!
I hope you are all having a turtley awesome week and are just as excited to see what's happening
on your beach as I am! Before I get into the specifics of your beach let’s look at Sanibel and
Captiva as a whole first...
Right now SCCF has seen a pretty significant decline in new nests so far this month with only a
couple new nests being discovered per week. Although nesting has slowed down, hatching is
pretty much in full swing now with new nests emerging almost everyday! As of today we are
continuing to monitor 424 incubating nests, and have conducted inventories on 312 already
hatched nests! Of the 424 nests incubating 15 are from Green turtles and the remaining 409 are
Loggerhead turtles. While these may seem like a huge difference in nest numbers between both
species, it is actually quite common for Sanibel and Captiva to have more Loggerhead than
Green nests. While Green turtles do nest here periodically, this season specifically is predicted to
be a less abundant one for Green nests because this is an “off year” for some of the Green turtles
that nest in the area. In each nesting season, Green turtles may lay an average of 3.6 clutches
with each clutch averaging around 128 eggs.
While we have been seeing a steady decline in nesting Loggerheads, we may begin to see a few
more Green turtle nests sporadically throughout the next few weeks. Green turtles are known to
nest a little bit later in the nesting season (July-September), as opposed to Loggerheads who
nest a majority of the time from May into early August. So if you are lucky, the nesting season
may not be over for your beach quite yet! Over the next few weeks it is possible that you may see
a couple more nests pop up on your beach from Green turtles or even a Loggerhead that is a
little bit late to the game.
Now let's see what is happening on your beach!
As of today, Chateaux Sur Mer has 11 nests incubating on its beach and 8 already hatched nests,
and 5 of which hatched since my last update. Of the newly hatched nests one was laid by 2020
SCCF tagged sea turtle, St. Cloud. St Cloud’s nest was inventoried a few days ago and we found 112
hatched egg shells! This means that 112 of St. Cloud’s hatchlings may have successfully made it to the
water! As for the other 7 hatched nests, 255 eggs successfully hatched, meaning that in just the past week
you have had around 367 hatchings make their way into the Gulf! More updates to come!
Have a great weekend!
-Carley
7-21-22
Hello Adopt-a-Beach friends and turtle ambassadors!
There is a lot of excitement happening between Sanibel and Captiva beaches this week with new nests
emerging almost everyday! As of today, SSCF has been monitoring 732 nests and have conducted
inventories on 81 already hatched nests! From this information we can confirm that around 8,100
hatchlings successfully hatched and emerged from their respective nests so far this season! We are off to a
great start with hatchlings season so far with most of our hatched nests having a 90% or higher success
rate, I’d say those are some pretty good hatches! In terms of the overall nest count thus far this season, we
are right on par with nest numbers from last year. Furthermore, as we continue to get new nests daily, we
could potentially be looking at another record breaking year!
So now that we have officially made our way into the hatchling season I want to share with you some
interesting information about the hatching process!
Once the hatchlings are ready to make their way to the ocean (around 45-65 days after the nest was laid),
they will begin to emerge from their eggs while still remaining in the egg chamber, this is called the
pipping stage. Once pipped, they will sit for a day or two until they have finished absorbing all the
nutrients from their yolk, as shown below.
Pipped Sea Turtle Hatchling
Once their yolk is absorbed, these little hatchlings will wait for the cover of night and then emerge
together in a frenzy, making their way to the water all at once! For most hatchlings, once they have
entered the ocean they will make their journey (several days) to the Sargasso Sea where they will live
under the cover of sargassum seaweed until they are approximately the size of a dinner plate.
Small sea turtle hatchling resting on the surface in it’s foraging grounds (Sargasso Sea)
Now that you know a little bit more about the hatching process, let's see what's going on on your beach!
As of today Chateaux Sur Mer has 11 nests incubating on its beach and 1 nest that has already hatched!
This hatched nest was laid by a newly tagged SSCF turtle named Drednaw. From Drednaw's nest, 76
hatchlings successfully emerged and made their way to the water, giving this nest a 78.3% hatch success
rate, not too shabby I’d say! As for the remaining 11 nests on your beach, we are very excited for them to
emerge in the near future and hope that they will send hundreds of baby turtles to the big blue! Until
then, we wish them the best of luck as they continue incubating safely below the sand.
Sea Turtle Fact of the Week : Green turtle hatchlings have been known to rest on the surface with their
front flippers folded over their back
7-1-22
Good Afternoon Adopt-A-Beach Friends!
I hope you all had a stress-free week!
SCCF is happy to report that we had our very first nest of the season emerge on Monday (6/27)! We are super excited to kick off the start of hatchling season and we’re sure that you are just as excited as we are to have your beach’s nests begin to emerge allowing hundreds of hatchlings to make their trek to the water!
As a reminder now that we are official springing into hatchling season:
Please be super cautious if you are on the beach any time from dusk to dawn. These little hatchlings can be a bit tricky to spot sometimes and you may find yourself standing in the middle of a hatchling frenzie! Hatchlings are super delicate creatures and are already very vulnerable to factors such as predators, holes, beach lights, etc, therefore it is especially important for us as beach-goers to be careful where we are standing or walking at night as we can also pose a threat to these little ones.
The best way you can help if you do find yourself near an emerging nest is to keep a safe distance of at least 20 feet, shoo off any birds who may be circling, and eliminate non-natural lighting (i.e. flashlights, house-lights, cell phones, flash photography, etc.).
Now let’s see what’s happening on your beach!
As of today, Chateaux Sur Mer has 11 nests incubating on its beach! 3 of these nests were actually spotted being laid by the SCCF night-tagging crew. One of the 3 was newly tagged by our night crew and was named Dred Naw which is a turtle Pokemon! The other two turtles were recognizable faces to our program. Meyer Lemon, a turtle tagged by SCCF in 2019, chose your beach as the location for her fourth documented nest by our staff. St. Cloud, a turtle first tagged in 2020, also chose your beach as the destination for her 2nd documented nest by SCCF! We hope that Dred Naw, Meyer Lemon, and St. Cloud continue to choose Chateaux Sur Mer and Sanibel beaches as their desired nesting locations for years to come!
Sea Turtle Fact of the Week
The interval between successive nests is around two weeks and each nest has an average of 100-150 eggs, although the size of the nesting mother very much has an impact on how many eggs they lay. Typically a larger turtle will lay more eggs
Thank you for your continuous support of our program, and have a great weekend!
-Carley
6-24-22
Good Afternoon!
I hope you all had a good week and are enjoying this lovely Friday.
SCCF staff and volunteers continue to conduct daily check-ins on every nest, and now some of the earliest nests laid here on Sanibel and Captiva are ready to hatch any day now! We are super excited for hatchling season to begin and are carefully monitoring our nests to keep them safe until that time comes.
These little hatchlings face a lot of threats as they grow to adulthood. The likelihood of a hatchling emerging and surviving to the point of maturity is very low, with only about 1 in 1000 surviving to adulthood and returning to nearby beaches to reproduce. These low survival rates are why our conservation efforts and your help as a sea turtle ambassador are so important. Eliminating as many obstacles on the beach as we can is a great way for us to give these precious creatures the best chances of survival. That means turning off lights at night to prevent turtles from getting disoriented, only using red lights on the beach, filling in holes, picking up trash, removing beach furniture, and keeping a safe distance of ~20 feet any time you encounter a mother turtle or hatchling on the beach. We appreciate your generosity to our program and for spreading the word to others about being a good beachgoer.
Now let’s see what’s happening on your beach…
As of right now there are over 11 nests off the beaches of Chateuax Sur Mer, several of which were laid by mothers that were encountered by SCCF’s night-tagging staff! Some of these turtles have been previously tagged by SCCF staff and have even come back to lay multiple times already this season. We wish their hatchlings success and we hope that they continue to choose Sanibel as their nesting site for years to come!
Sea Turtle Fact of the Week
A female sea turtle may lay multiple nests within one nesting season, and will usually do so in close proximity to her previous nests! How neat!
Have a great weekend!
6-10-22
Good Afternoon Adopt-A-Beach friends at Chateaux Sur Mer!
Now that we are well into the month of June, we are officially in the peak of our nesting season here on Sanibel and Captiva! I know that tropical storm Alex that took place this past Saturday left many concerned about the wellbeing of some of our nests, but luckily for us and our existing nests, we had minimal losses due to the heavy rain and higher tides. Though we had some losses we are still right on trend with our nest numbers from past years.
As far as your beach goes…you still currently have 8 nests incubating on your beach! These nests were all laid fairly recently so you have quite a bit of time left before they are estimated to emerge. That also means plenty of time for more mothers to come and nest on your beach!
As of right now our staff and volunteers are still locating several new nests on a daily basis between both islands and are eagerly awaiting the start of hatchling season which will begin within the next few weeks! With that being said we have lots going on this time of year from locating new nests, monitoring existing nests, to nighttime tagging. During these busy next couple months our crew wants you to know that we are continuously grateful for your continued support of our program and appreciate your generous gift to support these amazing creatures.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend
-Carley
Sea Turtle Fact of the Week:
Many sea turtle nests are lost due to erosion from winds, high tides, and flooding. If sea turtle eggs are to become exposed, they may not survive. Please keep an eye out for sea turtle nests as we approach wet season and call the SEA TURTLE HOTLINE at (978) 728-3663 if you think a nest may be in danger.
5-27-22
Good Afternoon Adopt-a-Beach friends at Chateaux Sur Mer!
I hope you have all had a lovely week!
As of right now SCCF has located 155 Loggerhead and 1 Green Turtle nest!
Staff and volunteers are eager to find more nests as we are headed straight into our peak nesting months. As you can see by our latest nest numbers I mentioned above, Sanibel and Captiva are clearly hot nesting sites for mostly Loggerheads thus far this season. Lucky for you, there have been signs of a Green Turtle near your beach! In the past couple weeks we have located multiple “false- crawls” near and on your beach, so we are hopeful to have some more Green Turtles nest on Sanibel this season and maybe have them come back to lay another clutch later this summer! Although we love our Loggerheads, it is always exciting to have a Green nest here as well! Last year SCCF located 27 Green turtle nests, 5 in 2020, and 32 in 2019, which is significantly lower compared to Loggerhead nests which last year laid 904 nests between Sanibel and Captiva. As of today Chateuax Sur Mer has 5 Loggerhead nests on the beach! I will have more updates for you soon!
Have a turtley awesome Memorial Day weekend and remember to keep Sanibel & Captiva beaches welcoming to our neighborhood nesting turtles !
Until next time,
Carley