Everyone knows Florida for their lack of seasonality between summer, winter, fall, and spring. But, we do have ecological seasons, which is arguably way more exciting! We have storm season, starting from June 1 through November 1, followed by crab season starting on October 15 through May 15, people season which is when the snowbirds head back to Florida to escape their cold winters which roughly starts December 1 and ends right after Memorial Day. Our most exciting season is turtle season, which starts on May 1 and ends on October 31. Turtle season is when all of the sea turtles come ashore from the Gulf of Mexico to lay and bury their eggs in the warm, white sand.
Historically, anywhere from 50 to 200 eggs are laid, where only 7-10 successfully hatch and make it to the ocean, where only 1-1,000 will survive to full maturity! There are so many threats to these amazing tiny creatures spanning from natural predators, to natural disasters, to human destruction. That’s right, humans are unfortunately a huge factor as to why these sea turtles may not reach a full life in the Gulf. Collier County has implemented several tactics to try and save as many baby sea turtles as possible.
Once sea turtle season begins and the nests have been created, Collier County will fence off those nests on the beach so people do not accidentally step on the sand-buried eggs. The beaches are then strictly closed at sunset, as that is when the turtles are most likely to hatch and start the race to the Gulf. Sea turtles have also been placed on a protected species list here in Collier County, which can help protect them from hunters. But the protection of sea turtles does not stop at the Gulf in Collier County. It is against the law for people to damage, threaten, or harm sea turtles in the ocean, which is where the most die before reaching maturity. To learn more about sea turtle protection, head to the Collier County rules and regulations site here: https://www.collierparks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Sea-Turtle-Laws-Regulation-and-Guidelines.pdf
With all of the amazing measures that Collier County has implemented into our laws and regulations, turtle season has hit record high nest numbers! Bonita Beach’s previous record in 2019 was 238 nests, but this year, 282 nests were created. In Collier County, the last record in 2016 had 1,927 nests, and in 2022, there were 1,945 nests. Turtle nest numbers have been steadily increasing since Collier County began implementing these standards during turtle season. We live in an amazing ecological are in the country where wildlife is all around us, but they need our protection. We need to continue to work towards saving the wildlife to keep our coasts beautiful and lively.