The 2021 Sea Turtle Nesting Season is Here

FORT LAUDERDALE/DAVIE, Fla. – It’s that time of year again.

No, we’re not talking about Spring Break in South Florida, although that has arrived, too. We’re referring to the annual Sea Turtle Nesting Season, which runs every year from March 1 – October 31.

Many people don’t realize that nearly 70% of the nation’s sea turtle nesting takes place on Florida’s beaches. And for approximately three decades, researchers and students at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) have been administering the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program to help mother turtles and their hatchlings.

“Every morning during nesting season, we head out on Broward’s miles of beaches looking for new turtle nests and monitoring them until they hatch,” said Derek Burkholder, Ph.D., a research scientist at NSU’s Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, who is the director of the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program. “If you visit any of Broward’s beaches in the coming months – early in the morning – you’ll probably see us. We’re there every day, rain or shine, even through all the COVID-19 related shutdowns, because every year, the turtles show up to nest, no matter what.”

For eight months of the year, every morning starting 30 minutes before sunrise, NSU researchers and students set out to survey Broward County’s approximately 24 miles of beach. In fact, this is one of the largest areas monitored by a single group in Florida. The team looks for any nesting behavior (i.e. new nests dug overnight) or “false crawls,” which is where a female sea turtle crawls up on the beach but, for whatever reason, turns around and heads back to the ocean without laying any eggs.  

When a new nest is located, it’s marked off and monitored until the baby turtles hatch. In some cases, staff must work to relocate any nests that may be at-risk (laid below the high-tide line and will be washed out on next tide, etc.) In addition, they will excavate nests after the babies hatch to find out how well the nest did and collect a lot of other valuable data that gets relayed to local and state conservation agencies. Any stragglers who didn’t quite make it out and to the ocean with their brothers and sisters are gathered up and cared for until they can be released into the ocean.

One of the biggest threats to South Florida’s sea turtles is artificial lighting, which can cause adult and hatchling sea turtles to become confused and crawl the wrong way on the beach. Studies have shown that artificial light can even deter adult female turtles from nesting on a beach altogether. Lighting that is near the beach should be “sea turtle-friendly” to minimize impacts.

“Sea turtle-friendly lighting is low in lumen output and mounting height, shielded so that the light source is not directly visible, and long wavelength such as amber or red LED,” said Stephanie Kedzuf, a Natural Resources Specialist with the Broward County Environmental Planning and Community Resilience Division, and Contract Administrator for the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program. “It’s also important that beachfront residents minimize the amount of interior light that is visible from the beach by closing curtains after sunset, using warm white bulbs and moving light sources away from windows.”

To this end, the BCSTCP has two crews of surveyors who patrol the beaches at night: one surveys the lighting for all of the beachfront properties along our coast, checking for any possible cases of non-turtle-friendly; while the other monitors nests in areas with especially high light pollution, where hatchlings can crawl toward non-turtle-safe lights and end up in bad situations, like in beachside pools or even busy streets.

The NSU team is also lucky to work with many dedicated volunteer groups who work tirelessly to help direct hatchlings who are disorienting and struggling to get back to the water after they hatch, in many cases due to improper lighting on the beach. The Sea Turtle Oversight Protection (STOP), South Florida Audubon Society (SFAS) and Sea Turtle Awareness Rescue Stranding (STARS) spend countless hours on the beaches each year making sure thousands of hatchlings are headed the right direction and helping to protect our local beaches and of course the sea turtles nesting there!

Burkholder, who is also the Director of NSU’s Marine Environmental Education Center (MEEC) at the historic Carpenter House on Hollywood Beach, said that it’s important that beachgoers are aware of the nests and what to do if they see a mama turtle on shore or hatchlings heading out to the open sea. 

“What we’re asking is that people practice some physical distancing similar to what they have been during the pandemic – except when it comes to turtles, please stay at least 50 feet away from any you see on the beach,” Burkholder said. “You can enjoy these magnificent marine animals, but please do it from a safe distance.”

 Florida’s beaches serve as the normal nesting area of three specific species of sea turtles: the loggerhead sea turtle (listed as threatened;) the green sea turtle (listed as endangered;) and the leatherback sea turtle (listed as critically endangered.) By monitoring nests and creating public awareness, the BCSTCP helps protect these fragile creatures for future generations. For the last three years, the data show:

Burkholder said that these numbers reflect the hard work and dedication of so many people, including their efforts to help educate the public on the important role sea turtles play in the marine environment and how vital it is that we work together to protect them.

Anyone who encounters a sea turtle or hatchlings in distress should call the Sea Turtle Emergency Line at 954-328-0580.

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About Nova Southeastern University (NSU): At NSU, students don’t just get an education, they get the competitive edge they need for real careers, real contributions and real life. A dynamic, private research university, NSU is providing high-quality educational and research programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree levels. Established in 1964, the university includes 15 colleges, the 215,000-square-foot Center for Collaborative Research, the private JK-12 grade University School, the world-class NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, and the Alvin Sherman Library, Research and Information Technology Center, one of Florida’s largest public libraries. NSU students learn at our campuses in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Miami, Miramar, Orlando, Palm Beach, and Tampa, Florida, as well as San Juan, Puerto Rico, and online globally. With nearly 200,000 alumni across the globe, the reach of the NSU community is worldwide.  Classified as having “high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, NSU is one of only 50 universities nationwide to also be awarded Carnegie’s Community Engagement Classification, and is also the largest private institution in the United States that meets the U.S. Department of Education’s criteria as a Hispanic-serving Institution. Please visit www.nova.edu for more information.