Volunteers help rescue first turtle nest of season
Published: May 29, 2006
One by one, Turtle Watch volunteers crated and relocated 104 translucent pink loggerhead turtle eggs on Friday in an effort to save the Panama City Beach area’s first marked nest of the season.
“The nest was laid very close to the water below the tide line so it was relocated to higher elevation where it’s safer for the eggs,” said Nancy Evou, assistant coordinator of Turtle Watch and a biology technician with the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Evou called for help Friday after spotting the nest off Thomas Drive east of the Sunbird condominium. Turtle Watch volunteers monitor beaches from St. Andrews State Park west to Camp Helen during the egg-laying season from May through hatch as late as October.
“We try to ensure that all the hatchlings safely make it to the water,” Watson said. Nests are marked with stakes, survey tape and informational signs that warn against disturbing the endangered species.
Hatching begins in July, Turtle Watch coordinator Kennard Watson said. Volunteers monitor the marked nests until the last eggs
Still, survival rates are low.
“They may be as low as one in 1,000 - nobody knows for sure,” Watson said. “The odds are definitely against these turtles once they hit the ocean.”
Panama City Beach typically has about 20 nests, though there have been as many as 38 and as few as nine in recent years, Watson said. Hurricane storm surge washed out most of the nests laid last year.
“We’re all hoping for a quiet hurricane season,” said Watson, who works as a mechanical engineer at the Navy base off Thomas Drive.
Moving a nest is a delicate and measured process. Nests generally are relocated in the vicinity of the original location, but farther from the water to protect the eggs from high tide. The existing chamber is measured and a new hole is dug with identical dimensions, Evou said.
The turtle eggs are about the size of golf balls. They are translucent, but turn white as they mature.
Before sighting the nest Friday morning, Evou said she saw the area’s first “false crawl” of the year near the M.B. Miller Pier. A false crawl is a turtle track that indicates the reptile turned back before laying any eggs.
“For some reason, she was distressed or harassed or maybe the lights were too much,” Evou said.
Bright, artificial lights can disorient nesting female turtles and direct hatchlings toward lights rather than to the gulf. In May 2003, the county began enforcing a pilot lighting ordinance restricting lighting on five miles of unincorporated beach from the western border of Panama City Beach to the Walton County line. Members of Turtle Watch are pushing for an extension east to St. Andrews State Park. No direct communication has been made with Panama City Beach officials. Meanwhile, Watson is hoping for a decision from the county this summer. Opponents argue that turtle-friendly lighting is too great a risk to public safety.
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