South Walton Turtle Watch

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South Walton Turtle Watch

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SWTWG is a 501c3 sea turtle conservation group working under Marine Turtle Permit #120 issued by FWCC

Symbolic Hatchling Adoption: https://forms.gle/ikqNvRXmgHeovZuf7

10/12/2026

🐢 2026 SEA TURTLE NESTING SEASON WRAP-UP 🌊

And just like that, our 2026 nesting season has come to an end. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for our final weeks.

Hurricane Isaias brought a heartbreaking conclusion to an already challenging season. All 8 nests still incubating when the hurricane arrived were lost. Combined with Tropical Storm Bertha, our nesting beaches endured an incredibly difficult year.

Our hearts go out to everyone impacted by Isaias. A tremendous THANK YOU to our emergency responders, recovery crews, and especially the power linemen working tirelessly to restore power and help our communities recover. We are incredibly grateful!

🐢 2026 BY THE NUMBERS

68 Nests
53 Loggerhead (CC)
15 Green (CM)

35 False Crawls
26 Loggerhead
9 Green

📍 NESTING BY AREA
Miramar Beach: 9 nests | 3 FC
West 30A: 27 nests | 18 FC
Middle 30A: 17 nests | 14 FC
East 30A: 15 nests | 0 FC

🥚 HATCHING SUCCESS
Hatch Success: 42.5%
Emergence Success: 41.3%
Average Incubation: 59 days

These numbers reflect significant storm impacts, particularly the loss of nests during the latter half of our season.

🌊 STORM IMPACTS
31 complete washouts
24 nests washed over by storm tides
6 partial washouts

☀️ SURVEY DEDICATION
Despite challenging conditions, our teams missed only 5 survey days all season! We also documented 440 no-activity reports.

📅 SEASON MILESTONES
• May 12: First crawl — Loggerhead false crawl
• May 28: First nest — Loggerhead, Miramar Beach
• August 30: Last nest — Green, Middle 30A

💚 THANK YOU!

To our incredible volunteers, nest adopters, donors, partners, local agencies, and community: THANK YOU for showing up for our sea turtles!

This season brought early mornings, relentless heat, storms, and some heartbreaking losses. But conservation isn’t measured by one season alone.

Every nest protected, hatchling safely reaching the Gulf, and person educated makes a difference.

We cannot control the storms, but we CAN control how we care for our beaches.

Our season may be over, but our commitment never ends.

South Walton Turtle Watch 🐢💚
FWC MTP 120

10/04/2026

Good morning 3☀️a!!

The surf is a little rough out there today… and honestly, buddy, we’re not sure about it either. 😂

This little loggerhead was found alive during our excavation and spent a minute pacing back and forth like, “You really expect me to go out THERE?!”

But he’s got this. After a little hesitation, he made his way safely into the Gulf and officially started his big adventure. 💙

Nest #53 Results:
89 total eggs
76 hatched
12 whole
1 dead pipped (halfway out of shell)
2 live hatchlings found & safely released
86% hatch success

The season may be winding down, but we’re still out here — and so are they!

SeaTurtleConservation

09/30/2026

🐢💚 Another GREEN nest has hatched!

And can we talk about ALL. THOSE. TRACKS?! 😍 There’s something pretty incredible about seeing that little highway of flipper prints heading straight to the Gulf. 🌊

No detours. No wrong turns. Just a whole bunch of tiny greens that knew exactly where they were going. 💚

And that little straggler made sure we got one last goodbye before heading out on the big adventure. 🥹🐢

Clean beach. Dark beach. Flat beach. Straight to the water.
THIS is why matters.

Never gets old. 💚🌊🐢

Stay tuned — we’ll have a full nesting season update later this week! And yes… we still have turtles out there doing turtle things. 😉🐢💚

FWC MTP 120

09/25/2026

Welcome back, Wanda! 🐢🤦🏻‍♀️

Our crab-loving loggerhead is back in the area, right on schedule. Three years ago, she even tried to eat a green sea turtle hatchling…see the video. 🫣Apparently, Wanda isn’t picky!

If you spot her, stay back and give her plenty of space. She’ll eat just about anything, and we’d rather you didn’t test that theory. 🤣

Call our hotline 🐢 ☎️ at 850.865.4503 if you see Wanda!

09/20/2026

Just two little greens hugging it out before the big swim. 🥹💚

Earlier this week, we excavated two green sea turtle nests:

🐢 Nest 50
85 hatched | 33 whole | 6 dead pipped
124 total eggs | 69% hatch success

🐢 Nest 52
108 hatched | 1 dead in nest | 2 dead pipped | 3 whole
116 total eggs | 93% hatch success

Go GO Green Jets ✈️!! That little green was absolutely hauling flipper to the Gulf and caught the perfect wave out. We love it. 🌊💨😂

09/15/2026

Go Go GREEN JETS!! 🐢✈️

Some days are just luckier than others for our surveyors! Green nest found emerging on our morning surveys today 💚

Is this an ideal time? No.
Nature being nature, and that’s the way we like it. 😎

Mtp120

09/13/2026

🐢 SWTW NESTING UPDATE 🐢

Full nesting surveys have officially ended, and it looks like we’ll close out the season with 68 nests! We still have 26 nests incubating in the sand that our team continues to monitor.

Our latest excavations:

Nest 20 — 0% hatch success
Nest 22 — 3% hatch success
Nest 26 — 3% hatch success | 1% emergence success
G3 GREEN— 96% hatch success | 0% emergence success due to accretion
Nest 40 — 89% hatch success
Nest 41 — 71% hatch success
Nest 49 GREEN — 94% hatch success! 💚

That first Seaside green nest was a huge success, sending 92 little green beauties toward the Gulf! Unfortunately, the green nest we assisted the State Park with was heavily impacted by accretion. Although 85 hatchlings developed and hatched, none were able to emerge from the compacted sand.

So far, our nests have produced 1,071 hatchlings! And with 26 nests still incubating, we aren’t finished yet.

Thank you for continuing to keep our beaches Clean, Dark and Flat—these babies still need us! 🐢🌊

MTP 120

09/11/2026

Just dropping some insane cuteness into your feed…The first green hatchling of 2026 has arrived!! 😍

MTP 120

09/08/2026

🌊🐢 Excavation Update

Three more loggerhead nests impacted by Tropical Storm Bertha:

Nest 18: 121 eggs | 0% hatch success

Nest 34: 6 hatched | 121 eggs | 5% success

Nest 36: 40 hatched | 2 live hatchlings released | 86 eggs | 47% success

Our teams are still conducting full surveys in our higher-density areas, along with partial surveys and nest checks in lower-density areas.

And now we wait…three green beauties are officially on the clock ⏰ as their 10-day nesting intervals approach! Will any of these ladies return, or is the nesting portion of our season officially over? 👀

If you see hatchlings or fresh tracks, call our ☎️ hotline at 850.865.4503.

Keep our beaches Clean, Dark & Flat, please and thank you! We are not finished yet! 💚

FWC MTP 120

09/03/2026

They’ll never meet, but they followed the same path home. Mom one morning, two of her babies this morning. Full circle. 🐢💚

MTP 120

Address

755 Grand Boulevard , Suite B-105 PMB190 , Miramar Beach, FL 32550
Walton County, FL
32461

Telephone

+18508654503

Website

http://SouthWaltonTurtleWatch.org/, https://account.venmo.com/u/southwaltonturtlewatch, https://www.zeffy.com/donation-f

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