Sea Turtle Nesting Program
Under the FWC marine turtle permit MTP-22-153, MORAES helps with Virginia Key sea turtle nesting survey. Each and every morning throughout the nesting season (May 1st through October 31st), our trained and permitted team lead passionate interns and volunteers across the island’s beaches to monitor, track, and document marine sea turtle nesting activity, most of which focus around the loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta. The data collected from this seasonal project is imperative to track sea turtle population trends and coordinate the necessary conservation efforts on an annual basis. Proper management efforts rely on the information being collected throughout the season to accurately develop new beach polices and adjust regulations, initiate ordinances, and educate the public on the importance of sea turtles within our marine ecosystem. Click below to learn about the 2022 nesting season.
If nesting does occur, the site is safely marked off and monitored for the next ~50 days until the hatching occurs. Each site is measured, dated, and marked at a specific location, noting whether any abnormalities occur throughout the process. If all goes well, an average of roughly 80 hatchling loggerhead sea turtles will methodically traverse the beach through sand, sargassum, and predators to enter the ocean and face off against a whole new line of obstacles, hopefully one day returning to the same beach as an adult to continue the amazing cycle.
As our team navigates the Virginia Key Beach coastline, their attention is focused on the sand, specifically the markings created in the sand overnight. As the female sea turtle emerges from the water and crawls up the beach, she begins searching for a suitable nesting. Once a site has been chosen, she will then begin to dig a body pit using all four of her flippers simultaneously before then using her rear flippers to dig a deeper hole for the eggs to rest in. Once the egg laying session is complete and the hole is successfully covered up, she will make her way back down the beach and into the water. She leaves her mark in the sand and we train our team to use these markings to essentially recreate this story.
What are we doing?
