Species information

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Sea turtle species that lay nests in our local area are Loggerhead, Green and Kemp’s ridleys. Loggerheads (Caretta caretta) are by far the most common in Englewood and Venice, Florida. The next most numerous are the Greens (Chelonia mydas). Both these species usually nest after dark. Kemp’s ridleys (Lepidochelys kempii) very rarely nest here but usually do so on windy days during daylight hours.
 

If you are lucky enough to encounter a turtle on the beach during the daytime, stay well back, watch quietly so as not to “spook” the turtle, take photos and email them to: info@coastalwildlifeclub.org
with information about the date, time and place. You may observe the turtle rocking back and forth at her nesting site. This behavior is perfectly normal for these turtles. Photo documentation of these very rare turtles is very important.
 

If you encounter a turtle after dark, PLEASE stay well back, quiet, keeping your cell phone lights turned off and avoiding any flash photography. It may take an hour or so for the turtle to lay her clutch of eggs and to camouflage her nest by throwing sand with her flippers. It is not necessary to email us about turtles nesting at night, but please try to avoid walking all over her tracks as our volunteers will use them in the morning to help to determine to which species she belongs and where she placed her clutch of eggs.

Sea turtle mothers carefully select their nesting sites and work to bury and camouflage the location of her eggs, but that is the extent of her care. No species of sea turtle exhibits maternal behavior. The little hatchlings are on their own. If you encounter hatchlings on the beach, please do not touch or disturb them or “assist” them in any way other than remaining quietly out of their path to the sea or standing so that your shadow shades them from the sun.
 

The hatchlings will instinctively crawl to the ocean and swim in a “frenzy” for several days until they reach their first life stage home in rafts of Sargasssum seaweed in the Gulf. Any lighting other than the natural moonlight may disorient these little hatchlings causing them to veer away from the water and they may die.
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Manasota beaches were designated Critical Habitat for the threatened loggerhead sea turtles in July 2014 and are increasingly used also by Greens. Many people know that turtles are found on most sandy beaches of Florida but they are not evenly distributed. The beaches of Manasota Key are the most densely nested beaches of all the Gulf of Mexico states.

Photo: FWRI