VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. (WESH) — Sea turtle nesting season ends Sunday and in Volusia County, it’s been a very good year.
There are still 19 nests on the beach where tiny hatchlings are expected to push their way out of eggshells and make a run for the water.
Besides people, one of the biggest threats to turtle nests are storms or high tide events that wash the nests out.
“Luckily this year we’ve been relatively fortunate to not have too many big storm events or anything like that. We haven’t lost very many nests to any sort of like storm impacts,” said Ryan Chabot, who manages the county’s sea turtle habitat conservation program.
There have been a few cases of people molesting the nests or inadvertently interfering with a female adult as she makes her way from the ocean to the sand to lay eggs.
“Someone walking along the beach they happen to see or someone with a really bright flashlight walking around,” Chabot said.
But on the whole, the 2021 nesting season has been strong. The majority of nests are loggerhead sea turtles, but there are also a handful of green and leatherback nests and one of the rare Kemps Ridley.
Despite the impressive number of nests this season, it’s still a long road ahead for the 53,000 hatchlings that emerged. Experts estimate on the optimistic side of statistics, only one in 1,000 will survive to adulthood.
But those who do survive, tend to come back to the same general area they were born in. So in 10-15 years, when the female hatchlings reach full adulthood, they may lay nests here as well.
