Tag: Boca Grande Sea Turtle Association

Eighteen thousand loggerheads hatched so far

BY ARLENE HALL, BGSTA SECRETARY As I’m writing this article, BGSTA turtle patrollers have completed 278 inventories involving the sea turtle nests on Gasparilla Island. In previous articles,...

Nesting activity showing stronger results compared to 2024

BY ARLENE HALL, BGSTA SECRETARY Wow, the 2025 sea turtle nesting season is sure winding down quickly now! If you’ve been tracking the weekly statistics in the Boca Beacon, you may have noticed...

Say hello to Denise, the BGSTA permit holder for Boca Grande

BY ARLENE HALL, BGSTA SECRETARY Since May 1st, a hearty group of BGSTA volunteers have been out in the early morning patrolling Gasparilla Island beaches to document and monitor sea turtle...

Turtle patrollers find surprises in nests during inventories

BY ARLENE HALL, BGSTA SECRETARY In last week’s article, we reviewed some of the data BGSTA turtle patrollers collect for FWC regarding nest inventory as well as some challenges we face while...

Turtle Patrol highlight: nest excavations and inventory

BY ARLENE HALL, BGSTA SECRETARY One of the more important tasks the BGSTA turtle patrollers perform is nest inventory. This is done by digging up and documenting the nest contents either three...

Odd year: Review of this season’s sea turtle nesting figures

BY ARLENE HALL, BGSTA SECRETARY Can you believe we are only at the halfway point of this sea turtle nesting season? The word “only” used here is as an option, in case you are not a sea turtle...

Sea Turtles: Disorented hatchlings can be prevented

BY ARLENE HALL, BGSTA SECRETARY Last week, shortly after the start of one of our morning patrols, BGSTA volunteers received an urgent text message stating, “All, Denise has a major...

A young conservationist’s ideas on keeping nests safe

BY ARLENE HALL, BGSTA SECRETARY My grandkids from Kansas were visiting for the past couple weeks, and one of the highlights is having them join me for turtle patrol early in the morning. OK,...

How the island’s Sea Turtle volunteers work with Florida data

BY ARLENE HALL, BGSTA SECRETARY The sea turtle nesting season is now in its 11th week on Gasparilla Island, nearly halfway through the 26-week season, which officially ends Oct. 31. Since May...

Sea turtles have millions of years of nesting experience

Here we are at the top of another month so it’s time to look at how this sea turtle nesting season is progressing. As I noted in a previous article, this year’s nesting turtles are facing some...