PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — It wasn’t the year that biologists and sea turtle trackers on Pinellas County’s beaches were hoping for.
Across all Pinellas County beaches, the number of sea turtle nests was much lower than recent years. Roughly 35 miles of beach are patrolled each morning during nesting season and tracked by experts.
The group Sea Turtle Trackers covers the southern end of the county including St. Pete Beach, Pass-a-grille, Shell Key and Outback Key. The team with Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA) covers a larger section from Treasure Island through Clearwater.
Look at these cute baby 🐢
— Angie Angers (@angie_angers) November 1, 2023
Nesting numbers were down this year on Pinellas County beaches. 72 sea turtle nests were lost in #Idalia.
@CMAquarium & Sea Turtle Trackers patrol Pinellas beaches. CMA says they had 227 nests this year and STT had just over 100 @BN9 pic.twitter.com/bepnjIPYLN
CMA recorded 227 nests this season, a steep drop from 313 last year.
The Sea Turtle Trackers recorded roughly 100 nests this season, which is only slightly lower than last year but a steep drop from the 162 recorded in 2021.
Across Pinellas County, the trackers reported 72 nests were lost during Hurricane Idalia. Sixty-one of the nests lost were in the area tracked by CMA and 11 in the area patrolled by the Sea Turtle Trackers.
Experts attribute the lower numbers to the high tides and flooding from Hurricane Idalia, as well as the three-year cycle the female turtles use to lay their nests.
Carly Oakley, a senior biologist of the Sea Turtle Conservation Program at CMA, says this was already expected to be a lower nesting year and the hurricane added to it.
“We believe that our nesting females here tend to be on a three-year cycle,” she said. “Female sea turtles lay multiple nests in one season. In each nest there can be anywhere between 80-120 eggs in each nest. After the season they tend to take a one to two-year break in between breeding seasons.”
Joe Widlansky with the Sea Turtle Trackers says his biggest concern is the state the beaches were left in following Hurricane Idalia. He says in the southern part of the county, many of their nests had already hatched when the hurricane came through which led to less of a loss than if the storm had hit sooner.
“Thank goodness it was near the end of the season, where it was already tapering off,” Widlansky said.
His biggest concern is the state the beaches were left in. Restoration projects are now underway in Pass-a-Grille Beach to try and mitigate some of the erosion.
“If a turtle nested right here, it wouldn’t stand a chance,” Widlansky said.
The east coast saw above average nesting numbers this year.
Sea Turtle Nesting Season runs from May 1 to Oct. 31.