{"id":8148,"date":"2010-11-21T13:54:45","date_gmt":"2010-11-21T18:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=8148"},"modified":"2010-11-21T13:54:45","modified_gmt":"2010-11-21T18:54:45","slug":"good-news-sea-turtle-report-from-florida-gulf-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=8148","title":{"rendered":"Good News Sea Turtle Report from Florida Gulf Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Loggerhead Sea Turtle Deposits Eggs on Florida’s Gulf Coast<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Turtle Journal received a sea turtle report from our colleagues\u00c2\u00a0in Southwest Florida this weekend, and we’re excited to share\u00c2\u00a0this good news durng a year\u00c2\u00a0that has\u00c2\u00a0witnessed unrelenting bad news about the Gulf environment\u00c2\u00a0and sea turtles.\u00c2\u00a0 We thank our friend, Ranger Randy Sarton of the Ritz Carlton in Naples, for thinking about his chilly turtle comrades up here in the Great White North as we patrol Cape Cod’s frigid beaches for sea turtles during our fall-winter stranding season.<\/p>\n

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Cold-Stunned Loggerhead on Vanderbilt Beach in February<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of cold-stunning, Turtle Journal remembers that only last winter (2010), thousands of Florida sea turtles were caught in a miserable cold snap that sent them into hyp0thermic stupor.\u00c2\u00a0 This event called on naturalists, environmentalists, conservationists, scientists, researchers and willing volunteers to find these precious animals tossed randomly along Florida’s wide-spread gulf and ocean beaches.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse contributed her share when she discovered this cold-stunned loggerhead sea turtle on Vanderbilt Beach in Naples, Florida in February 2010.<\/p>\n

Of course we all remember that the Gulf Coast experienced an unprecedented ecological tragedy with the drilling platform explosion and leak\u00c2\u00a0this past year.\u00c2\u00a0 The effects of this disaster on sea turtle populations will not be fully measured for a generation.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only were mature, breeding animals affected, but oil drenched sargassum, which provides early nursery habitat for the most endangered sea turtle hatchlings\u00c2\u00a0in the world, was burned to remove oil residue from the sea.<\/p>\n

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Ranger Randy Sarton of Ritz Carlton’s Nature’s Wonders<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ranger Randy (Sarton) leads the Ritz Carlton’s Nature’s Wonders, one of Turtle Journal’s favorite stops whenever we visit the Southwest Coast of Florida.\u00c2\u00a0 Spending time in Nature’s Wonders and joining\u00c2\u00a0Ranger Randy\u00c2\u00a0for one of his many entertaining and informative programs makes a stay at the Ritz Carlton that much more pleasurable.\u00c2\u00a0 Once the stranding season ends here on Cape Cod, and the snows begin to pile into the Northeast from massive Arctic cold fronts, you can bet that Turtle Journal will be scanning Expedia for airline tickets to Southwest Florida.<\/p>\n

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Loggerhead Sea Turtle Crawl and Nest<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Randy reports that for the 2010 sea turtle nesting season in Collier County, they had 765 nests compared to 510 last year (2009).\u00c2\u00a0 That’s a 50% increase in sea turtle nests in Collier county!<\/p>\n

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2010 Loggerhead Sea Turtle Nest on Ritz Carlton Beach<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On Vanderbilt Beach, where Randy’s Ritz Carlton is located, he reports 111 sea turtle nests this year compared to only 60 last year (2009), which includes this wonderful nest pictured above directly in front of the Ritz Carlton.\u00c2\u00a0 (See Loggerhead Nest at Naples Ritz-Carlton Hotel<\/a>.)\u00c2\u00a0 That’s an 85% year to year increase!\u00c2\u00a0 In addition to the nests, Randy reports 88 false crawls (abortive nesting runs) in 2010 against only 67 discovered in 2009.<\/p>\n

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Loggerhead Hatchlings Emerge<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The end product of all the fantastic work that the Collier County team invests in saving sea turtles is when tiny hatchlings emerge and scramble towards the brightest horizon, which is either the\u00c2\u00a0gulf or the closest fast food restaurant.\u00c2\u00a0 Thankfully, the Florida\u00c2\u00a0lights-out policy augmented by a lot of help from dedicated volunteers ensures that most of Florida’s sea turtle hatchlings catch the evening tide rather than a burger and fries.<\/p>\n

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Juvenile Loggerhead Female in SW Florida Conservancy<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We couldn’t resist closing this post with an edited video clip from the Conservancy of SW Florida from last February.\u00c2\u00a0 The film shows an exquisite young juvenile loggerhead in rehab at the conservancy and reminds us of what all this saving the world, one turtle at a time really means.<\/p>\n