It’s not the year of the turtle, but 2014 has been a record year for state sea turtle nesting.
Leatherback turtles reached a record 641 reported nests, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, while loggerhead nesting numbers stayed high.
“It’s showing that you have an endangered species that are being protected for quite a bit, and it’s showing that they’re doing pretty well,” said Simona Ceriani, FWC research scientist.
The data was collected from the agency’s two sea turtle monitoring surveys — a statewide survey, which began in 1979 and documents nesting at 190 beaches, and an index survey, which uses data from 33 different beaches over the course of 109 days.
The index survey, which began May 15 and ended Aug. 31, showed that loggerhead nests were slightly more numerous than they were last year.
Ceriani said loggerhead nest numbers were high in the 1990s, decreased in the early 2000s and are now increasing again.
“We don’t know why this is happening, but the trend allows us to see that the population is actually going back up,” Ciriani said.
Leatherback nest numbers almost doubled from last year. Ceriani said the surveys are meant to only show state trends.
“It’s kind of misleading because it doesn’t mean that Florida only has 641 nests,” Ceriani said.
The FWC coordinated the two surveys with the help of more than 2,000 individuals along 800 miles of Florida beaches.
Individuals included federal, state and local park personnel, members of conservation organizations, university researchers and private citizens.
“Without that number of people and that effort, dedication and awareness, we couldn’t look at this type of information,” Ceriani said.
Zach Steinhauser, a UF wildlife ecology and conservation senior, said the news was relieving.
“Hearing news that nesting is up for loggerheads, greens and leatherbacks is fantastic news because it’s starting to show that what conservationists have done to work with people is working,” Steinhauser, 22, said.
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 10/10/2014]
