We said the same about last season, but…what a season!
This summer was the third highest nesting year on record for Sanibel and
Captiva. Sanibel finished the 2013 nesting season with 328 loggerhead
nests, 21 green turtle nests, and 511 false crawls (509 loggerhead and 2
green). Captiva had 132 loggerhead nests, 2 green turtle nests, and 80 false
crawls (78 loggerhead and 2 green).
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| Loggerhead turtle nest on Sanibel. Photo by: A. Bryant |
Unlike last year, which suffered from the impacts of two
tropical storms, hatch success this year was great! Sanibel and Captiva had 258
and 119 hatches respectively. This summer our beaches produced 26,641 live
hatchlings!
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| Loggerhead turtle hatchlings crawling to the Gulf at dawn. Photo by: A. Bryant |
Overall, green turtle nesting was up statewide this year. While the
final numbers are not in, yet, the 2013 nesting season appears to be the best
on record for this species. Sanibel and Captiva were no exception. Our previous
record for green turtle nesting was eight nests (7 on Sanibel and 1 on
Captiva). During the 2013 nesting season we documented 23 nests (21 on Sanibel
and 2 on Captiva) on the Islands!
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| Female green turtle crawling to the Gulf at dawn after nesting. Photo by: L. Linsmayer |
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