Emerald Coast Turtle Watch

11/14/2023

10/31/2023

🎃Happy Halloween!!💀

10/31/2023

And the last day of the 2023 sea turtle season. It was stupid cold this morning!

10/31/2023

Sea Turtle Nesting Season is officially over for the year on the Emerald Coast. Thank you to everyone who helped keep our beaches clean, flat and dark for our nesting mommas and hatchlings.

10/25/2023

Another spooky and scary thing that our sea turtles encounter is abandoned fishing gear! Those fishing nets kind of look like a scary spider web! 🕷 And boy are they scary to our sea turtles!

Abandoned fishing gear is very harmful to sea turtles. They can get stuck in deserted traps or wrapped up in a net or fishing line. This can cause physical injuries to their flippers and softer parts of their body. Sea turtles are air breathers so getting caught in an old trap will prevent them from making it up to the surface. 😵

It's always important to practice safe fishing habits by never cutting the line if you hook a sea turtle and do not target sea turtles while fishing! Always remember to and never discard your fishing gear into the ocean!

Unfortunately, sea turtles get injured or accidentally hooked quite frequently. Thankfully our friends at the Gulfarium CARE Center are here to help heal them and rehab them back to a healthy state!

10/23/2023

Are you afraid of ghosts?!👻

There are scary things on land and in the water! Plastic bags are scary to us and sea turtles. And they even look like a ghost!!

Marine debris, like plastic bags, can be very harmful to our marine and terrestrial wildlife. Many times, animals cannot differentiate food from trash and end up eating trash instead of their preferred meal. When an animal eats trash instead of food, their body is not able to digest it properly, or at all, which causes a "full" sensation. This prevents them from eating and getting the proper nutrition and diet that they need to survive.

Make sure to always throw your trash away, recycle your recyclables, avoid using single-use items (i.e. plastic bags and straws) and participate in cleanups to help protect our wildlife from the spooky things lurking out there! 🧡

10/16/2023

🐢Our 2023 nesting season has almost come to an end. All of our nests have hatched and been inventoried but we will continue to monitor our beaches until the end of the month. Give us a wave if you see us out on these chilly mornings! 👋

Here are our season totals:

🔹Total nests: 12 loggerhead nests (3 on Okaloosa Island, 9 in Destin)
🔹Hatchlings produced: 464
🔹Hatch success: 57%
🔹2 nests were washed out from Hurricane Idalia
🔹1 nest on Okaloosa Island had been severely inundated during Hurricane Idalia which likely caused development to stop in the nest. That nest did not hatch and had 92 whole eggs in it when evaluated.

Even though our hatch success was lower than we would like to see this year, we still had more nesting activity than we have had in the past few years! As long as our locals and visitors continue to keep our beaches clean, flat, and dark and safe for our sea turtles, we will hopefully continue to see an increase in nesting activity!

We want to thank you all for a wonderful season and for the passion and love that you have for protecting our sea turtles ❤️

10/06/2023

🐢Remember that nest that hatched the other night?! Last night was our evaluation of that nest (Nest #09) and we had quite the audience! Holiday Surf & Racquet Club guests and staff were able to observe the evaluation and even a hatchling release!

There were a total of 96 eggs in the nest and 67 of them hatched (70% hatch success). We are very happy with this hatch since this nest was inundated during Hurricane Idalia. It just goes to show how tough our little sea turtles are! 💚

There was one hatchling still in the nest and it was safely released to it's new forever home, the Gulf of Mexico.

We want to thank the amazing staff and management at Holiday Surf & Racquet Club for allowing us to utilize their property and for educating their guests on how to keep our beaches clean and safe for our sea turtles!

🔺If you need a red turtle-friendly flashlight, you can get one for FREE at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Welcome Center on Okaloosa Island.

All of the nesting and evaluation work conducted by this group and in these photos is permitted through the FWC Marine Turtle Program under permit #23-033.

10/02/2023

YAYAY. Last night Loggerhead sea turtles emerged from nest on this beach. Many went straight to the gulf just like they should. Several hatchling got disorientated and went up to the dunes. Thank you to the owners and guests that helped us find 9 hatchlings that have been taken to the Gulfairium Care Center. Happy to see this nest hatch as it did have water on it from storms and had been disturbed by people. Many adults and children got stickers, red flashlights and valuable information to help our sea turtles. And many pictures. Thank you to Holiday Surf and Racquet Club for keeping your beaches clean, flat and dark with proper turtle lighting. Sea turtle nesting season ends October 31st. All work performed on permit FWC MTP -033.
Sue Calhoun