October 24, 2008

With just a week before the official end of sea turtle season approaching, on October 31, we can finally brag that we had one of our most exciting seasons.  Our last nest was laid on October 3rd and will be incubating into December.  Our total nest count for the season was 649, a record high year!  As of today we have only 35 sea turtle nests still remaining on county beaches!  Of the total count, 617 of these nests were from the Loggerhead species.  We also had 32 Green sea turtle nests.  Unfortunately, we did not record any Leatherback nests this season.  We also received reports of 603 false crawls. False crawls are non-nesting emergences. This means that the female comes out of the ocean and, for whatever reason, decides not to lay her nest. Sometimes it might be likely because she encounters an obstacle of some sort, like a seawall, but other times it may be because of flashlights, fireworks, or other bright lights on the beach that frightened her! Remember if you ever get to see a turtle nest or hatchlings emerge; keep your distance and make sure it is dark so they are not frightened.   Hatching season is still here!  600 nests have been evaluated for nest success so far. Most have successfully hatched while some were washed out due to extreme weather and high tides like we experienced during tropical storm Fay. Inundation of nests for extended periods due to recent high tides may make them unable to complete development.  Other nests that were not able to be evaluated for nesting success because they were either scavenged by predators or the clutch of eggs could not be located. Below is the combination of what was discovered in evaluated nests.  Sometimes live turtles are found in the bottom of the nest and are released. Other contents found (like eggshells) are reburied on the beach to go through the natural process of feeding the sand dune ecosystem as they breakdown. Hatched Unhatched Eggs Pipped Dead Pipped Live Dead Hatchlings Live Hatchlings 41615 6825 1026 205 1148 957 This season, we had some major improvements to our sea turtle lighting enforcement program.  Compliance and enforcement efforts will now be handled directly by the sea turtle program staff in contrast to past years where the actions were handled by the Code Enforcement Division.  This change will allow us to work closely with residents and facility managers to provide education and direction on how to resolve their problems more effectively.  Artificial lights are a problem for sea turtles because in nature, with the dark silhouette of the dune behind them, the brightest horizon would be the ocean. In our world, sea turtles are attracted to the bright lights and can lead them to their demise.  This year we have had 40 reported disorientation events where hatchlings traveled the wrong way on the beach because of visible lights. For beachfront residents and visitors, compliance with our ordinance can be accomplished by drawing your curtains at night, not using unnecessary lights and ensure that those in use are shielded and don’t illuminate the beach and that the light source is not visible from any part of the beach. There are lots of great wildlife friendly lights on the market and by upgrading to some of these types of fixtures; many people are pleasantly pleased to find out that they can have functional, fun, wildlife friendly lights that don’t need annual modifications.  Our Rut removal crews have done a great job smoothing out vehicle ruts in front of nests due to hatch the driving areas.  They were very busy with the high nesting year by smoothing the sand out so that baby hatchlings don’t get trapped or expend important energy reserves while on their journey to the ocean from the nest. They have also been busy flattening sand castles and filling in man-made holes. Make sure after you visit the beach to flatten out your sand castles and fill your holes so that baby sea turtles don’t encounter them!!  Our Black Skimmer nest was a success!  A solitary pair of Black Skimmers had two beautiful chicks in Daytona Beach Shores that were all seen last in Ponce Inlet.  Speaking of birds, wintering Piping Plovers are returning to Volusia beaches to rest while migrating and some of them will remain here until the spring migration!  Many have already been spotted in the Inlet area including Smyrna Dunes Park ! Piping Plovers are protected species listed as Threatened and Endangered in different states of the U.S. The small shorebirds nest in different areas of North America in the summer and come back to the south in the winter to rest and eat! Piping Plovers are easy to identify if you get a chance to visit their Federally Listed Wintering Critical Habitat here in Volusia County . From a safe distance, you can see that Piping Plovers have very bright orange legs, only 15-17 centimeters, white belly, gray back and a very short, dark beak!  In past years there were less than 3,000 breeding pairs of Piping Plovers alive. Hopefully, they make a steady rise in population and continue to inhabit the Earth! Read more about these cute birds on our website under Piping Plovers. Washback Season 2008 is underway and to date over 210 washback sea turtles have been recovered!  This year we have over 100 volunteers signed up to participate in our Washabck Watcher Program! Washback Watcher volunteers are trained and permitted annually to identify and respond to washback sea turtles found on Volusia County beaches.  Participants survey zones of beach on an on-call basis.  Beach Safety staff is also trained to respond to washbacks and conduct seaweed wrackline surveys.  The official season is Aug- Nov.   In 2007 we had a very unusually high amount of washback sea turtles recovered from our beaches.  Washbacks are young post hatchling sea turtles which have hatched from nests, swum to the Gulf Stream and live in floating sea weed wrack lines.  When there are strong on shore winds between August and Nov., they are sometimes pushed onto the beach along with the seaweed.  They are about the size of the palm of your hand and have hair algae or barnacles growing on them making it obvious that they have been in the ocean for some time. In the ocean it is this algae and barnacles that keep them camouflage from predators while they live in seaweed beds for 5 to 10 years.    In 2007, with the help of volunteers, Beach Patrol and the public over 4,000 turtles were recovered!  See our photo album for pictures.  All of the washbacks were transported to the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet where they were evaluated and eventually released back into the ocean. Our program was honored with an award from the National Association of Counties (NACo) for achievement in creating the Washback Watcher volunteer program.  Visit http://www.naco.org/ for more info on the award and NACo.   Please visit www.marinesciencecenter.com for more information about the science center.  ALL training for the 2008 season is complete.  Please call 386-239-6414 if you are interested in participating in 2009.  Sea Turtle nesting throughout Florida seems to be up so far compared to a low year in 2007! Although no official news or numbers are out yet, word from our fellow Turtle Lovers is that nesting is higher than the very low numbers of 2007. Sea turtle nesting news from around the state includes reports of nesting by Leatherbacks, Greens, and Kemp’s Ridley!  Just to the south of Volusia, in Canaveral National Seashore, they had a Kemp’s Ridley nest! These turtles are not only the smallest and the rarest of all species, but they are also day-time nesters!! Throughout the state of Florida, however, Loggerhead nesting is showing a dramatic decline.  2007 was the lowest nesting year on record with only 45,072 nests laid in the state.  According to FWC marine biologists, since 1998 there has been a 40% decline in all populations of the Loggerhead sea turtles nesting in Florida.  Ironically, Green sea turtle nests are on the rise statewide and 2007 was the highest nest count ever with 12,752 nests counted.  Leatherbacks are also showing upward signs in nesting numbers and the state had a total of 1,442 nests counted in 2007.  We wrapped up the 2007 nesting season with a final nest count of 562 nests.  Of those we had 3 species types. 502 were Loggerhead nests, 54 were from Green Sea turtles and 4 were from Leatherbacks.   It was our 3rd highest nest count in 19 years! Recently, our nesting data was reevaluated for nesting trends by different species in Volusia County. Interestingly enough, the Loggerhead sea turtle who is the most popular species of sea turtle to nest on Florida beaches, shows a static trend in Volusia County.  Over the entire course of time that we have collected data here, the overall trend is now showing no great upward or downward trend.  Both Green sea turtles and Leatherbacks are continuing to show a slightly upward nesting trend on Volusia Beaches.  In general, nesting numbers in Volusia County are around a 450 total average with our highest count for Loggerheads nesting in one season at 626, Greens follow with a high of 54 in one season (2007) and the most active Leatherback year resulted in 9 nests deposited on county beaches.  This ratio gives a better perspective of the amount of activity recorded on our beaches.  Greens and Leatherbacks have larger nesting colonies in other parts of the world but Florida is a very important nesting area for Loggerheads, second only to an island off of Europe.  To learn more about sea turtles and the groups that survey Volusia County beaches for them you can now visit their websites, *South of the Inlet: Volusia Sea Turtle Society  http://www.vstsinc.org/ http://www.ecological-associates.com *North of the Inlet: Volusia Turtle Patrol  http://turtlepatrol.com Sea turtles eggs are air-permeable and they will not survive if inundated in water for extended periods of time.  Often times when nests are laid too close to the area of high tides or near water runoff locations, the eggs are relocated to an area that is higher and dryer.  The dry beach habitat is critical to the survivorship of all species of nesting sea turtles that come here.  We are planning on some dune planting projects once sea turtle nesting season ends. Dune plants are not just a beautiful thing on the beach, they serve an important function of holding in the sand on the dunes, trapping new sand with their leaves, and breaking up storm (wave and wind) energy when we have any strong storms or hurricanes. Natural dune systems are critical to the beaches and need to be protected throughout all coastal communities.  The 2008 beach re-nourishment project is complete between Sapphire Neighborhood Park and 12th St. in New Smyrna Beach .  A Florida Inland Navigational District (FIND) and Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) maintenance dredge project is done pumping sand from the Intracoastal water way (ICW) onto the beach. From May 1 –Oct. 31- the beach opening and closing times are from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.   This allows time for sea turtle monitoring crews to clearly mark all the nests and perform tasks before the beach is open to driving for the public. Outside of sea turtle nesting season, the beach is opened to public driving from sunrise to sunset.  Please remember and be understanding that vehicular access to the beach may be delayed or prohibited when environmental conditions such as high tides warrant. Also remember that driving and parking are never allowed within the Conservation Zone (the area closest to the sand dune system or seawall marked by aqua blue posts).  The beach will reopen to driving as soon as conditions permit. Please check back to this site regularly, as we will have updates to the nesting season and data posted as numbers change.  We will let you know any other exciting beach news!  We’ll see you at the beach!

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