Turning the Tides

With a beach replenished, sea turtles returned to their nesting ground. This is the story of the turtles and the people who share and enhance a precious common habitat.

Every year from mid spring until autumn, the human snowbirds abandon the white sandy beaches of southwest Florida and return to their homes in the north. Just about then, as if on cue, the powerful sea turtles head for those same beaches, following their internal magnetic maps for thousands of miles in search of the spot they were born some 30 years earlier.

Manasota Key is home to the well-kept-secret of a 14-mile stretch of beach, south of Sarasota and north of Ft. Myers. Its settlements are a combination of cottages, condos, and family homes. No Palm Beach-style showy mansions here. My parents discovered this sleepy place some 50 years ago, loving it for its unassuming, old-fashioned charm. 

It is also the nesting destination for thousands of sea turtles, loggerheads mostly. The loggerheads are joined by a few hundred green turtles and an occasional, very rare smaller Kemp’s ridley turtle, all of them classified as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. 

You can find real-live versions of the Florida Man meme on Manasota Key, but they are outnumbered, at least in spirit, by the year-round or winter community of people who embrace the habitat they share with sea life—ospreys, herons, and egrets, manatees and dolphins, kelp and grasses, mangroves, and of course turtles. Drivers along the single road of the key know to proceed slowly, watching and stopping for gopher tortoises ambling across. Less beloved are alligators and red tide.

Stretches of the beach had been eroding for decades, threatening and even undermining building foundations along the shoreline. In the spring of 2020, the county dredged five miles offshore and pumped some one million cubic yards of sand back onto the coastline. Tourists and turtles alike have returned.

This year, as of the end of August, the Manasota Key turtle nest count in this high nest-density area along the Gulf Coast has exceeded that of any previously recorded year with over 5,000. 

Do the numbers: with roughly 5,000 nests times roughly 100 to 120 eggs in a clutch along 14 miles of sand, you would think the waters off Manasota Key would be swarming with turtles. But odds run against the turtles.

With all these threats to the turtles, what could possibly go right? Enter the humans.

Just as people taketh away, people can giveth back. The Manasota Key turtle patrol is an all-volunteer community force of about 150 trained monitors overseen by the  Coastal Wildlife Club . Every day from April to October, they work the beach to document the turtle nests and log the results with Florida’s Statewide Nesting Beach Survey. 

The beach is divided into monitoring zones. For several mornings this July, I walked zones 13 through 16 with the volunteers. Zone 15, nearest to me, was the biggest performer so far this year on the south end of the key, an understandably enviable distinction. The meticulous, often hot and difficult work, was indescribably exciting. Here is what I saw on a walk with turtle patrol:

Along Manasota Key, over 5,000 nests have been spotted as of the end of August, and over 7,000 additional “false crawls,” where the mother turtle changed her mind for some reason and returned to the sea. The mother turtle comes by cover of dark, spends an hour or so digging the nest, depositing the eggs, covering up the nest, and crawling back to the sea. Her maternal duties with the nest are complete at this point; she will not return to it. 

Each nest is marked by a stake, which includes the zone number, the nest number, the species of turtle, and the closest street address on land. Then the perimeter of the nest is staked with yellow tape surrounding it. The volunteers can distinguish the species of turtle by the type of its crawl and build of its nest. There was a lot of excitement when the rarer green turtle nests were identified, and their nests were marked with green tape. Data are sent to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute for their Statewide Nesting Beach Survey, which monitors over 200 beaches in Florida. 

Patrollers check each nest daily, noting when nests are washed over or disturbed, perhaps by predators. Starting about 45 days after a nest has been laid, they will look for telltale signs of hatching -- a small crater-like indentation in the middle of the nest and lots of tiny tracks in the sand. The volunteers will mark the nest with seashells, indicating that turtles have exited the nest.

Three days after marking a nest with seashells, volunteers return to inventory the remains in that nest. Lots of turtle eggs don’t mature. Sometimes, a few hatchlings emerge but won't crawl. These are placed on sand in a bucket, covered with a damp towel, and kept in the dark until night, when they are released on the beach.

A solemn duty remains, excavating nests that showed no signs of hatching. Contents of those nests are counted and returned to egg chambers to replenish the beach ecosystem.

“Think global” – be aware that all life is connected. “Act local” – as the turtle team in Florida has done. 

Volunteers of the human Turtle Patrol are also setting an example of what local action toward global goals can mean. Their data collection and documentation add to the compendium of research about turtle life and about the effects (both good and bad) of human behaviors on turtles. The facts can contribute information for planning and policies around coastal life. Their outreach to neighbors and visitors raises awareness and helps educate people about the big picture of sea turtle life that begins in their own backyards. 

Few communities have a beach or a critical turtle-nesting haven immediately nearby.  But everyone lives near some opportunity to make a difference, whether individually or in concert with others. That may be planting trees to maximize their benefits on cooling, water, and the surrounding ecosystem. Or switching from gas to battery-powered lawn equipment –  especially leafblowers , to reduce carbon emissions, help the wildlife, and protect humans' health and hearing. There are countless changes in daily habits that individuals can practice, and when feasible, can encourage to affect local legislation or build local movements. 

The air above us and oceans around us are by definition global phenomena. Pollution or excess emissions in any country will affect people and wildlife everywhere else. But the same is true in reverse. Progress anywhere, including those helped by local community efforts, can mean better prospects everywhere.