05/01/06

Today is the beginning of the annual turtle nesting season, during which humans need to give nesting sea turtles space and, in homage to Rodney Dangerfield, "respect."

"The darker the beach, the brighter their future," Sarasota County Environmental Services representative Kenya Leonard said at Venice City Hall on April 22, during a special Earth Day program about sea turtles and what humans can do to help improve the odds for sea turtles.

From today until Oct. 31, humans need to be aware of the nesting and hatchling turtles, to keep away from them and to eliminate all but the most necessary lighting within range of the beaches where the nesting activities occur.

NESTS (Neighbors Ensuring Sea Turtle Survival) is a program designed to work with homeowners and homeowner associations to help protect sea turtles nesting on area beaches.

"Fifteen years ago we didn't even have a beach," Venice City Manager Marty Black said. "The turtles would come up to hardened seawalls. Sometimes we have to intervene because of decisions made decades ago."

This year, Venice beaches were tilled in order to loosen the renourished beach sand in preparation for the current nesting season. Tilling, which is required by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, makes it easier for sea turtles to dig holes in which to lay their eggs; and easier for the hatchlings to dig out of their nests some 43-75 days later.

Venice beaches were renourished a year ago, the first time the beach has been renourished since the renourishment project 12 years ago.

"Usually the year after a renourishment project, there is 20 percent less nesting," Mote Marine Biologist Tony Tucker said. "They are more false crawls and with the beach higher and wider there is more potential for disorientation."

The other things humans have to do for the turtles is to give them their space and darkness, turning out or at least shielding any lights within sight of the beach. This includes lights within homes and condos along the beach, lights in swimming pools near the beach, car lights in parking lots and even flash lights and cigarette lights at the beach.

Those who don't adhere to the lighting codes could face county fines.

Turtle history

Turtles have been here for some 200 million years, Tucker said.

"They have seen dinosaurs come and go," he said. "When we change the rules, they do not have the capacity to adapt."

There are five species of sea turtles in Florida: leatherbacks, green, Kemps Ridley, Hawksbill and loggerheads, the most prevalent and most likely to nest in the Venice area. There were two green turtle nests last season on Manasota Key. In 1999, there were two Kemps Ridley nests on Siesta Key, also a rare occurrence.

The turtles that do appear are returning to the area where they were born some 15-30 years ago, drawn by some genetic instinct, and, now that humans have replaced dinosaurs, when they do return they find a beach that is very different from the one on which they were hatched.

In those interim years, the surviving turtles will have crossed the Atlantic Ocean east to the Azores and the Canary Islands. When they are 15 years old, and about 2 feet long, they catch a ride back west toward our coast. They don't all make it back. Predators and red tide take a toll and the currents do not always cooperate. Some turtles end up floating off to Mexico or even up to North Carolina, depending on the current.

Nesting turtles come up on the beach at night, usually heading to higher ground where they use their back flippers to dig the nests, which are 18-24 inches deep. When the female has deposited as many as 120 eggs, she covers the nest and crawls back into the water. The same female might nest four to seven times during the season and then may not nest again for four to seven years.

Despite making that many nests and laying that many eggs, turtles are on the endangered species list. For every 1,000 hatchlings that make it to the sea, only one will reach adulthood.

Humans are more responsible for those odds than any predator on land or in the sea.

"We have to take care of our turtles," Tucker said. "If we lose them, others won't take their place."

That is because of the natural honing that brings them back to the area where they were born. To replace itself, a turtle has to lay at least 1,000 eggs and that could take a minimum of eight years, if the female makes just four 100-egg nests per season, four years apart.

When the eggs are deposited in warm sand, the odds favor female hatchlings but if the eggs are deposited in cool sand, the odds favor male offspring, Tucker said, referring to the turtles as "hot mamas" and "cool daddies."

To beat the odds and have a good chance of replacing itself, a female turtle will be into its 50s before it lays enough eggs for that one replacement surviving turtle to reach maturity.

To help the odds, Mote staff and 140 volunteers log 22,800 hours patrolling 36 miles of county beaches, covering 11,000 miles a season. Over the years, many turtles have been tagged, he said. Some that were tagged 20 years ago are still returning to nest.

The human factor

Despite nighttime patrols and other measures taken by concerned people, disoriented turtles have still ended up being cooked in hot tubs, smashed under the wheels of cars or eaten by predators before they could get to the relative safety of the water.

Everyone can help.

"Everyday can be coastal cleanup day," Jessica Koelsch of the Ocean Conservancy said at the April 22 meeting. "Take a bag with you to the beach. When you see something that doesn't belong, put it in the bag."

Discourage predators like raccoons, which account for thousands of lost turtles annually by getting into nests and eating the eggs. Later in the season, they eat hatchlings as they race to the water. Do not feed raccoons anywhere. Doing so encourages them to associate that area with food but it also is dangerous. Many raccoons in Sarasota County are rabid.

Beach furniture is not covered by any Venice area ordinance but also can present problems. When a turtle encounters an obstacle, it generally turns around and heads back to sea, resulting in a false crawl. If you take a chair to the beach during daylight, put it away at night during turtle season.

If they can't find a place to nest because of obstacles, they can expel the eggs in the water, but the chances are good that turtle will not be back. The eggs expelled in the water will be food for the fish.

"They can't reproduce in the sea," said Dean Gallagher of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. "The need the coastal beaches."

Lights out

Turtles have dealt with hurricanes and natural predators for thousands of years. Humans are their greatest threat and lights the main culprit.

Lights can deter turtles from leaving the water to nest and also can disorient the turtles so they nest in less desirable places or have trouble returning to the water, wasting a lot of energy and resulting in more false crawls.

"Losing a sexually reproductive turtle is a tragedy," Gallagher said. "They orient to the brightest light and away from the darkest place."

If they are disoriented, turtles will all end up in one spot. Disoriented turtles, especially hatchlings, can end up scattered all over the beach where they are easily picked off by raccoons, ghost crabs and shore birds.

To prevent orientation problems, turn off or shield any lights that would shine on the beach or even close to the beach at night. Those who live in beachfront homes or condos may need to install blinds, shutters or dark draperies to cover the windows at night. Lights needed for walking from parking lots to homes can be changed out to low level LED-type lights and shielded so that even that light is directed away from the beach.

There are three considerations involving lighting, Gallagher said. Will the light be visible from the beach? Is the light reflected off surfaces that make it visible at the beach? Is the visible glow from short wavelength lights (bright white)? No lights are invisible, whether yellow, red or blue. What is important is that the lights be kept low, shielded and long in wavelength. Low pressure sodium bulbs are good and so are black baffle fixtures that direct light straight downward, as long as they are installed correctly.

"Direct the light where you need it and only where you need it," Gallagher said. "Keep Florida beaches naturally dark for everyone's enjoyment."

Bright lights impact human night vision, making it more difficult to see obstacles ahead or even dangers lurking in the shadows.

To learn more about turtle-safe lighting, visit turtlesafelighting.com.

Features Editor

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