Turtle Patrol: 235 of 313 nests gone after Debby, could have been worse
BY ARLENE HALL, BGSTA SECRETARY
On August 4 and 5, Debby was “only” a tropical storm when she scooted up the gulf more than 100 miles to our west; as we know, she became a Category 1 hurricane before making landfall in northern Florida.
Her track was eerily similar to Idalia’s last year, although Idalia was a hurricane as she passed by us. During the days when our BGSTA turtle patrol volunteers were unable to get out on the beach, we were grateful that our network of local residents sent us photos and videos of Debby’s churning gulf and pounding surf. We were thankful there was little damage and no loss of life in our area, but it was disheartening to see how much water was washing up to, and over, the dunes and seawalls – just like with Idalia.
With it being early August, the number of incubating nests in jeopardy was fairly high and we feared all 313 incubating nests had been wiped out. When we finally were able to get out days later and assess the impact on the incubating nests, however, we were pleasantly surprised that so many nests were still found! Whereas 2023’s Idalia wiped out 95 percent of the incubating nests on the beach (137 of 145 nests were gone), Debby had less of an impact on some parts of the beach and we only lost 75 percent of the incubating nests (235 of 313 nests were gone). Yes, this is still a huge number, but remember, a nesting turtle lays several nests during the season, essentially “hedging her bet” that at least one or more of her nests will hatch.
Our assessment showed nests located in the middle or lower beach areas (closer to the water), were completely washed away. Many of those that had been located on the higher ground at or near the dunes, were washed over with waves but were still found. It also was obvious that many of them had been buried under an additional six to 18” or more of sand that was left behind (this is called accretion).
The nest marking stakes we placed at the time the nest was originally discovered help us determine the amount of sand deposited over the nest. Nests that have been washed over, and even those with accreted sand, may still hatch; this is dependent on many factors including how long it was washed over (or under water), how quickly the water was able to drain from the nest, the depth of the accreted sand and at what stage of development the incubating eggs were in at the time of the event.
Different areas of the island had different impacts, too. For example, there were very few higher dunes left in the center portion of the island after Idalia, so most of the nests in that area are gone. On the southern part of the island, however, there are still quite a few nests that survived, having been located higher up at or in the dunes.
Thankfully, this was not a season-ending storm for the turtles. In fact, within the last several days, we have seen that several of the remaining 78 nests had still hatched on schedule. We remain hopeful for the others. While the nesting activity was already winding down well before the storm, in these past few days, we have seen that new activity (false crawls and nests) has really slowed to a … well, crawl (I couldn’t resist). We documented only five new false crawls and one new nest this week. Nature is resilient and the turtles are carrying on.
Our patrollers are also resilient and are back out there in the mornings, monitoring the nests and collecting not only data, but also our stakes and screens that washed up along the beaches and dunes. We will continue our patrols until the very last nest is closed out.
Hopefully, the incubating turtles – and not the weather – will determine when that will be.
All activity conducted by BGSTA turtle patrol volunteers is in strict accordance with FWC Marine Turtle Permit #24-123.
Questions? Call (941) 999-7177.
At Florida State Parks:
Gasparilla: 42 loggerhead
Cayo Costa: 554 loggerhead, 1 green turtles
Don Pedro: 199 loggerhead, 28 green turtles
Stump Pass: 272 loggerhead, 1 green
