Dramatic Increase in Sea Turtle False Crawls Continues

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Sea Turtle Report

We are into the third month of sea turtle season, and false crawls are more than three times the number of total nests outnumbering nests by approximately three to one this season. A false crawl is when the female loggerhead comes ashore to nest, and for whatever reason, she goes back to the water without depositing her eggs in the sand.

Last year during this week, Marco’s false crawls were about double the total nests, which is typical. It is noted that false crawls also have increased for many other beaches in Collier County (Barefoot, Vanderbilt, Parkshore, Naples and Marco’s South Beach). 

Why the increase this year? There is no consensus, but these beaches received upwards of 400,000 tons of sand as part of the emergency berm project to protect coastline properties post Ian. Marco also started its sea turtle season with the Sand Dollar Dredging Project providing a much-altered habitat for 

the returning nesting sea turtles.  

Hatchling Disorientation is also high. According to the Marco Island Police Department Beach Report, 17 Sea Turtle Lighting violations were issued for June 2023. This year, to date, there are 38 hatched nests on Marco with 21 hatchling disorientations.

Let’s Keep all Marco beachfront lights off for sea turtles from May 1st to October 31st. All indoor and outdoor lights visible from the beach must be shielded or replaced with special sea turtle-friendly amber bulbs or turned off by 9:00 PM. It’s the law!