With its sandy beaches and subtropical waters, Florida is home to one of the largest loggerhead sea turtle nesting populations in the world.
Despite living up to 70 years, loggerheads have been on the decline due to ocean pollution, human interference, and the gradual destruction of its nesting habitats — leading to their protection under the Endangered Species Act as a threatened species.
But in early July, on the gulf coast of Florida, Anna Maria Island celebrated a huge milestone for sea turtle conservation when Turtle Watch volunteers counted 546 nests on the island, breaking a 42-year record for the island.
“We broke our all-time annual nest number count this week,” Kristen Mazzarella, executive director of the Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, told the Anna Maria Island Sun.
Because nesting season continues through late August until early September, Mazzarella predicted that they would be beating the record “by quite a bit by the end” of the season.
“We are excited that so many sea turtles have decided to nest on Anna Maria,” Mazzarella said.
“We can thank the conservation efforts of patrollers that protected nests 25 years ago for producing the hatchlings that are coming ashore [as adults] to nest in such high numbers this year.”
Mazzarella is not exaggerating.
Loggerhead sea turtles take roughly 25 to 35 years to mature and often return to the same beaches where they were born, meaning that the turtles currently nesting on the island could have hatched on the beach as far back as 1989.
And that’s not the only conservation win for Anna Maria Island this summer. 2024 marked the first time that least terns — a tiny, threatened bird species — successfully nested on the island in 15 years.
Suzi Fox, the director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, said that she can’t remember the last time least terns nested on the gulf beaches.
“I’m very excited,” Fox told the AMI Sun.
Fox dates the last successful nesting colony of least terns to 15 — or even 16 — years ago at Bean Point, on the very tip of the island.
A few terns have tried to nest on Anna Maria Island in the years since, to no avail.
In 2013, the black-and-white birds attempted to nest across from Bradenton Beach City Hall, but their nests were destroyed by racoons — and even local cats and dogs.
But now, when new yellow-billed chicks hatch in the burgeoning colony, they’ll have added protection from carefully placed wooden palettes that keep them safe from osprey and other winged predators.
Fox chalks up the least tern’s return to beach renourishment efforts and island’s coastal shore protection program. The next step comes down to community awareness, like keeping pets off the beach and teaching children to leave the birds and their chicks in peace.
“If everyone could just go the extra mile and help us get these eggs off to a good start,” she urged locals.
When it comes to the sea turtle nests, Mazzarella echoed a similar message to the community, adding a warning about the dangers of artificial light drawing hatchlings in the wrong direction.
“In order to ensure that this incredible number of nests results in a record number of hatchlings making it to the water, we need to do our best to provide a turtle-friendly beach.”
One thing’s for sure: Between the sea turtles and the least terns bouncing back on the beaches, there’s a lot to celebrate this summer.
“It’s great news, for a change,” Fox said.
Header image via FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
