Excitement hatches on Longboat

First sea turtles hatch, as excited crowd watches season kick-off

MELISSA REID
Staff Writer
mreid@lbknews.com

Sea turtle nesting season is well underway, and one of the first Longboat nests has hatched. The Longboat Key Turtle Watch group noticed the first hatching on the Manatee County portion of Longboat and held a turtle nest opening yesterday. Several hatchlings had not yet made their way to the Gulf, so Turtle Watch volunteers placed the remaining hatchlings into the water as onlookers watched them swim away.

Every morning at 6:30 a.m., the Turtle Watch Group walks the Manatee County portion of Longboat Key looking for turtle nesting tracks and hatchling tracks. When the volunteers they find a nest, they stake it off and place yellow tape around the stakes.

Since sea turtles are protected under the Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 and Florida’s Marine Turtle Protection Act, the taking, possession, disturbance, mutilation, destruction, selling, transference, molestation and harassment of marine turtles, nests or eggs is a prosecutable offense. Violating these rules can result in imprisonment for up to 60 days, fines up to $500 or both, plus additional penalties of $100 for each sea turtle egg destroyed or taken.

After a nest has hatched, the Turtle Watch Group holds a nest opening, where the nest is excavated and the number of hatched eggs, un-hatched eggs and live hatchlings are counted. Mote Marine volunteers walk the Sarasota County portion of Longboat Key and keep track of the same nesting information.

Sea turtle nests vandalized
Sea turtle nests on Siesta Key have been vandalized in the past few weeks, and Longboat Key Turtle Watch spokesperson Freda Perotta says that currently no Longboat turtle nests have been vandalized.

According to Mote Marine, at least a half dozen sea turtle nests have been vandalized on Siesta Key beaches so far this nesting season. This week Mote staff found six disturbed nests—two nests had the flagging tape removed, another had broken stakes and three nests had the stakes removed and placed elsewhere. According to Mote, moving the stakes might cause the staff to lose the location of the nests and any information on the stakes.

According to a Mote press release, protecting sea turtle nests is important this year, given the environmental issues that sea turtles are facing in 2010 from the record cold temperatures in January and the current Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In January, more than 4,500 turtles statewide were stranded because of an Arctic front that made Gulf waters fall to record low temperatures. The low temperatures led to cold-stunned turtles, and rehabilitation facilities statewide treated turtles in record numbers.

Then in April, the Deepwater Horizon oilrig exploded, sending millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf. The oil washing up on shore in the panhandle led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Wildlife Commission and other partners to relocate an estimated 70,000 sea turtle eggs to Florida’s east coast.

If anyone suspects a wildlife law violation, please report it to the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s Wildlife Alert Reward Program: 888-404-FWCC (3922). If the information results in an arrest, the person may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000. Cell phone users can reach law enforcement at *FWC or #FWC, depending on your service provider.