Let the Crawling Begin!

The first loggerhead turtle nest on Sanibel of 2012.

Each sea turtle season distinguishes itself in some way. So far, 2012 will be the season with the earliest start. Captiva had the first nest on April 20 and Sanibel wasn’t far behind with nests on April 25 and 26. This sets a new record for early nesting by Loggerhead turtles on the Islands. We were expecting nesting to begin earlier than usual due to the mild winter and warm temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, but not quite this early! One of the big benefits to the early start will be that nests will hatch before we start to see any tropical storms or hurricanes in the Gulf, enabling more hatchlings to safely make it to the water.