Pinellas County sees decrease in sea turtle nests after Hurricane Idalia

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Sea turtle nesting season just wrapped up and while the east coast of Florida reported an increase in nests, parts of the Tampa Bay area, specifically Pinellas County, saw a decrease. 

Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s biologists were at the beach every day in Pinellas County during sea turtle nesting season, which runs from May through the end of October.

"Rain or shine, we are monitoring 21 miles of beach every single day looking for evidence of nests, false crawls, as well as hatch outs," Carly Oakley, a senior biologist with the Sea Turtle Conservation Program at CMA, said.

READ: Sea turtle hatchlings trapped in hole on Holmes Beach rescued, released into Gulf

Oakley said they saw 227 nests this year compared to last year’s 313, partially because of Hurricane Idalia.

"Before the hurricane came through, we actually had 75 nests left on our beaches. And then after the hurricane came through, we did see a lot of coastal flooding and high tides, which actually wiped out most of our nests, and fortunately, we were able to reestablish 14 of those nests," Oakley said.

She said there are 80 to 120 eggs in each nest, and they were still able to help 12,000 hatchlings make it to the water.

"Even with our low lower numbers, we were actually able to see a great high success out of all of our nests even before the hurricane came through," Oakley said. 

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She said they also expected a lower nesting year because trends over the past several years have shown nesting females in Pinellas take one to two year breaks in between breeding seasons.

According to Oakley, they saw more than 100 disorientation incidents. That’s when a sea turtle follows artificial light instead of natural light guiding them towards the water.

"It’s very important that we keep our shades drawn and if we have to have lighting that we use a source of red or amber light. This is harder for our sea turtles to actually detect and it will make it so that way they will actually go towards the water versus come towards civilization," she said.

Winter the Dolphin’s Beach Club in Clearwater, that has a partnership with CMA, has a tint on all of the building’s windows that prevents the glare from lights to help sea turtles. 

Oakley said it’s also important to fill in holes and to flatten sandcastles before leaving the beach.

READ: 10 cold, stunned sea turtles found in Cape Cod Bay receiving care at Clearwater Marine Aquarium

"A sand hole could be anything like the Grand Canyon for a hatchling to go through, whereas a sandcastle could be like Mount Everest. So, it does take a lot of energy for those hatchlings to get through those items," Oakley said.

Further south, Mote Marine Aquarium’s Sea Turtle team recorded more than 4,000 nests, and the highest number of green sea turtle nests in Venice. Mote patrols 35 miles of beaches from Longboat Key to Venice. A Mote spokesperson said Idalia didn’t impact its nests much because most had finished their incubation periods before the storm.

You can reach out to CMA for information about sea turtle-friendly lighting.