SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – The Sarasota area’s first sea turtle nest of the 2020 nesting season was found on Siesta Key early Monday morning.
Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Conservation & Research Program (STCRP) began monitoring Sarasota’s beaches last week.
The first nest was created by a loggerhead sea turtle, Sarasota’s most abundant nester.
Other signs of sea turtles in the Sarasota area include a false crawl, where a turtle comes onto the beach but returns to the ocean before creating a nest, on Longboat Key.
Mote monitors 35 miles of beach, from Longboat Key through Venice. In 2019, Mote documented 5,112, a record-breaking year.
Sea turtle nesting season officially runs from May 1 through Oct. 31.
If you see a sick, injured or stranded sea turtle in Sarasota or Manatee counties, contact Mote’s Stranding Investigations Program at 941-988-0212.
Outside of those counties, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 888-404-FWCC.
