~Learn about the
intriguing habits of area sea turtles~
Apalachicola, FL – Sea
turtle nesting season is here! During
the first week of May, sea turtle nests have been spotted on both St George
Island and St. Vincent Island, and volunteers and staff are monitoring remaining
area beaches for their crawls. Each spring
hundreds of these grand creatures arise from Gulf waters to lay their eggs on
our sandy shores. Most of the turtles
that nest here are Loggerheads, Caretta caretta, but we do get some Green sea
turtles, Chelonia mydas and Leatherback sea turtles, Dermochelys coriacea.
Hatchlings will start to crawl out of their nests approximately two months
after being laid and continue to emerge through October. On average there are
90 nests on Little St George and 150 nests on St. George every year.
Bruce Drye has been
monitoring turtle nesting on St. George since 1990, after he retired from the
St. George Island State Park. At first a
volunteer, he was later hired by ANERR to oversee the project each year. Bruce
started the ANERR St. George Island Volunteer Turtlers which also help monitor
the nests.
Two interns will be
working with Bruce this season. Amy
Bergstrom from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area has been an intern at both the
Racine Zoo and at the Milwaukee County Zoo, and Kallie Gannon, a senior at
Eastern Michigan University, earning her bachelor’s degree in Environmental
Science.
Little St. George
Island has been monitored by ANERR staff since 1988. Megan Lamb with NOAA’s Environmental
Cooperative Science Center has been assisting with turtle nesting on Little St.
George since 2004, and overseeing the beach since 2009.
Apalachicola National
Estuarine Research Reserve will offer free weekly talks about sea turtles,
their nesting habits, how the nests are identified, protected and how visitors
and residents can help sea turtles have a successful nesting season, on
Wednesdays at 2:00 PM. Dates of the
talks will be June 3,10,17,24 July, 1, 8,15,22,29 and August 5,12,19,26. For more information call (850)670-7700.
WHAT: Nesting Sea turtles
of Franklin County Beaches
WHEN: Every Wednesday in
June, July and August, 2015, from 2:00-3:00pm
WHERE: 108 Island Drive,
Eastpoint, Florida 32328
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