Lorraine Thompson
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Lorraine Thompson

Survey teams from designated zones along St. Johns County’s 40 miles of coastline are getting ready for another sea turtle nesting season which officially begins locally on May 1 and runs through Oct. 31.

“We are gearing up for another exciting season,” commented Tara Dodson, environmental supervisor of St. Johns County Growth Management Department.

“Our nesting numbers have been steady and consistent since 2010 with average nesting staying above 600. It is important to note that before 2010 our average nesting numbers were around 250.”

Dodson advised that some of the Florida Wildlife Commission sea turtle patrol volunteers may begin patrolling on April 15.

“FWC outlines the sea turtle nesting season to begin on April 15 even though our local ordinance states it begins on May 1,” Dodson explained. “All for good reasons since for the past three years we have had nests recorded before May 1 on some of our beaches.”

Sea turtle hatchlings head for the ocean.

While the 2020 nesting season wasn’t a record, it came close with a total of 853 nests which produced an estimated 56,533 hatchlings. Six hundred fifty-six of the nests were on the north beaches, 159 on Anastasia Island and 38 at Matanzas Inlet South. The counts included 784 Loggerheads, 48 Greens, 20 Leatherbacks and one Kemp’s-Ridley. The 2020 numbers were short of the record set in 2019 when St. Johns County recorded more than 1,100 nests.



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