Laguna Key Sea Turtles - Gulf Shores, Alabama

03/21/2024

A fish SO adorable it once served as inspiration for a car design? Meet the boxfish, ocean lovers! 🟨 This vibrant, sneakily nimble fish is precious to look at—but looks can be deceiving. When threatened, the yellow boxfish releases a toxin, which is not so cute when you’re a predator ... but it’s certainly functional for the boxfish! ✅

Dive in at the link below to learn all about our ocean’s brilliant boxfish and what you can do to protect the marine ecosystems they depend on. 🌊

🔗 https://ow.ly/O8j650QXfi6

02/17/2023

08/19/2022

Wow!!!

08/12/2022

Yay!!! The leatherback nest hatched!!

: The first leatherback nest in Escambia County in over 20 years hatched last night! 🎉

🌙 Approximately 60 leatherback hatchlings made their way to the Gulf late last night. The hatchlings were aided by a full moon and were able to make their way to the Gulf unassisted, which is a rare victory on our developed coastline. This is the only leatherback nest in northwest Florida this season and the first to successfully hatch since 2000. It proved to be a long wait for our Sea Turtle Volunteers, who have been keeping an eye on the nest over the entirety of its 78-day incubation. We cannot thank them enough for their patience and dedication to monitoring this nest.

Though sometimes seen offshore, leatherbacks are considered rare visitors to our beaches, preferring to nest along the southeastern coast of Florida. These tiny hatchlings have a long journey ahead of them, but the ones that survive to adulthood will grow to over six feet long and up to 1500 pounds, making them the largest living sea turtle.

👣This is just the beginning of our hatching season in Escambia County. Help every hatchling make to the Gulf safely by remembering and to when visiting our beaches.
ℹRead the full story here: https://tinyurl.com/LeatherbackHatch

All turtle work performed under MTP . Pictures taken without flash and in natural light settings.
Photo Credit: Stephenie Allen, Escambia County

08/08/2022

So this happened tonight! Watch it until the end, it’s worth it!!

All footage obtained under approval of USF&W and not harmful to these turtles.

08/06/2022

Just beautiful!!

Leatherback vs Loggerhead: Hatchling Edition 🐢

Look at this amazing comparison between two of the hatchling species that we see in Florida.

Leatherback hatchlings have a soft shell with beadlike scales that outline their ridges. They have a dark coloration with white edges around their flippers. They typically weigh around 1.6 ounces and grow up to be the world’s largest sea turtle!

Loggerhead hatchlings are much smaller in size, weighing around 0.7 ounces. Unlike leatherbacks, they have a lumpy shell with raised scutes. These hatchlings range from pale brown or gray to a dark brown coloration, which changes throughout their lifespan.

08/03/2022

We have to do better!!

This baby turtle was a few weeks old. Next to him is his gastrointestinal tract, full of plastic. He was brought into as a wash back but wasn’t able to make it. Sea turtle rehabilitation staff member Emily did a necropsy and took this revealing image. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words and filled with 344 pieces of plastic!
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07/30/2022

🤔Something I would not except. 🤔

Earlier this week, while doing a nest excavation and inventory, our Marine Turtle Specialists got a surprise visit from a native Eastern Spotted Skunk! Although it’s not very common, skunks will occasionally prey on sea turtle eggs. This bold individual couldn’t pass up the opportunity for an easy snack and ran right up to the working biologists to sn**ch one of the undeveloped eggs. Thankfully, this was a nest that had already hatched and the egg that was taken was no longer viable, so no living eggs or turtles were harmed.

Our staff has multiple methods to deter predators from incubating nests including mesh wire screens and habanero pepper powder. During our morning survey, we look for any signs of disturbance in the nests such as pawprints, digs, or damaged eggs, and employ these methods to protect the eggs.