Despite high disorientation, sea turtles nest in Longboat Sarasota your watcher

This year’s sea turtle nesting season from Longboat Key to Venice ranks fifth in the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium’s 40-year program history.

This is also the season with the highest number of green sea turtle nests recorded, with nearly 200 nests. The number of loggerhead nests is less than 2,000.

On Longboat Key, the nesting season starts early, with 307 nests in the first month of the 2023 nesting season. In the 2021 season, there were 165 nests in the first month.

At the end of the season, which ended Oct. 31, nest totals in the Motes were 4,091 loggerhead nests and 193 green turtle nests.

Among them, there are 978 loggerhead turtle nests and 12 green turtle nests on Longboat Key.

There are 184 loggerhead turtle nests on Lido Island, but no green turtle nests. However, Siesta Key has 7 green turtle nests and 364 loggerhead turtle nests.

Melissa Macksey, senior biologist and conservation manager at Mote, said the end of the 2023 season has been very positive. The biggest win of the season, she said, is the number of green turtle nests and the fact that they continue to grow exponentially over the years.

She said there’s nothing to be seriously concerned about, but there are some important takeaways from the season.

While Macy hasn’t officially completed her data analysis for this season, she did say hatching success rates appear to be down this year.

She speculates that the cause is more frequent lethal temperatures. This summer’s extreme heat has impacted water temperatures, but may also have resulted in reduced turtle success.

Another issue that remains present in all areas is the incidence of disorientation.

Maxey said there was a lot of disorientation this year. I don’t know if this is the highest ever, but it’s pretty close.

The dilemma of disorientation

Sea turtles become disoriented when artificial light causes a nesting mother sea turtle or hatchling to become confused and veer off course.

The result of disorientation is that turtles often fall into pools, hot tubs or become food for predators such as raccoons, Maxey said.

These activities occur more frequently on beaches with many resorts, such as North Siesta Key and North Venice.

Maxey said Longboat Key has one of the highest levels of disorientation in the state.

That’s not a great ranking, Maxey said.

Macksey couldn’t share disorientation rates for the 2023 season because the numbers are still being verified, but she said this year won’t be much different than the 2022 season.

In 2022, there were 1,294 nests on Longboat Key. Among them, 262 people were disoriented, with a disorientation rate of 20.2%.

Another way to look at ratios is to look at a subset of newly hatched nests, Maxey said. The total number of nests can be confusing because some of them may not have hatched yet.

In the 2022 hatching season, 68 out of 240 hatching nests were disoriented, with a disorientation rate of 28.3%.

Therefore, Macksey said the ratio for the 2022 season is between 20% and 30%.

Twenty percent is when red flags start to appear, Maxey said.

Mott often compares Longboat Key to Casey Island. There, the nesting density is slightly higher, but in terms of lighting, the atmosphere is similar to that of a longship.

Last year, Casey Key’s lost rate was 1%.

While this year’s disorientation rate didn’t break the record, Massey said it was pretty close. She thinks maybe the only reason they didn’t is that Hurricane Idalia’s storm surge destroyed many nests during the rest of the season.

Maxey said incidences of disorientation can often be traced to specific nests, and most of the time, hatchlings are more susceptible to light.

Cyndi Seamon, vice president of Longboat Key Sea Turtle Watch, said this may be because hatchlings are more easily distracted by lights than older adult females.

So if you have a female wandering in the wrong direction, that’s a very bright light, Simon said.

Beaches like Longboat Key are a perfect storm for sea turtles, Maxey said. This is an ideal nesting site, but there are many lighting obstacles.

But with 990 nests accounting for a large portion of Longboat Key’s 4,284 sea turtle nests this year, Maxey said the plan attempts to emphasize close collaboration with town code enforcement.

what can be done

Going forward, both Maxey and Simon agree that education and awareness of the impact of artificial light is key.

On Longboat Key, town code requires that visible lights on the beach use sea turtle safety lights and one or more other measures to reduce light emitted from doors and windows. These include: turning off unnecessary lights, using blinds or curtains, rearranging movable fixtures and/or applying window tint.

“We try to encourage people, no matter what your code is, if you have a light that’s visible from the beach, try to make it turtle-friendly or turn it off,” Maxey said.

Maxey said that since humans are not affected by light like many other animals, some people may not realize that following these regulations can go a long way.

I think a lot of it is also because people don’t realize it’s a problem, or it doesn’t make sense because we’re not affected by light the way turtles are.

While town regulations can help on the surface, there are other implications that may not be so obvious.

Maxey said there are issues with non-waterfront lights on narrow waterways. For example, a nest hatched on the south end of Longboat Key might get lost in the lack of beachfront housing on the north end of Lido Island.

Simon, who oversees beach patrols for Longboat Key Sea Turtle Watch and liaises with town code enforcement, said lighted resorts continue to be a problem in Longboat Key.

Seamon said newer buildings need to meet window tint requirements, but even then, bright LED lights can still shine through the resort’s windows.

“Without the curtains to hold them,[the light]would be very harsh,” Simon said.

As buildings, dunes, and other structures on oceanfront properties change over time, this can also cause light to shine in from the main road or even the bay side.

Staff turnover is also a problem in education. When hiring code enforcement, you need to be up to date, and new tenants during sea turtle season may not be aware of the impacts of lighting.

That’s why continuing education and working with code execution is important to both Macksey and Seamon.

“We really want to urge people who live on the beach or have any issues with beachfront lighting to really try to reduce this, especially during sea turtle season,” Maxey said.