Early Morning Surprise at Residents Beach

Attachments

Sea Turtle Activity Update May 16.docx.pdf

Sea turtles usually nest at night, and according to Maddie Bernstein, a sea turtle monitor, this female had quite a night! On May 17th, a female loggerhead was observed on Residents Beach and members entering the beach from the boardwalk couldn’t believe their luck that morning. A small crowd had gathered to watch this ancient prehistoric visitor. Everyone kept their distance.

Maddie had followed the tracks and marked them with Pink flags as she was inclined to think it might have been a false crawl. The sea turtle stopped crawling and stayed very still in the middle of Residents Beach, and Maddie did not want to leave her to look for her possible nesting location.  

The sun was up, and watchers were worried she was going to overheat. At around 8:04 AM, the sea turtle moved one flipper forward toward the water. Digging sand during nesting is a lot of work for a nesting sea turtle. According to experts, it can take the whole night to finish digging and laying their eggs.  

Jenna Flickinger, another sea turtle monitor, came along to help and she poured water on the sea turtle after she had stopped for about an hour. Slowly the tired sea turtle crawled towards the surf – that was around 9:24 AM.

Good news – this was not a false crawl – her nest was discovered by the morning team of sea turtle monitors (Maddie and Jenna) just north of the JW Marriott and was marked!  

Fascinating Fact: It takes 20 to 30 years for a sea turtle to reach sexual maturity.  When a female is ready to lay eggs, she returns to the nesting beach where she was born, even if she has not been there for 30 years and some females nest every year. 

To think that this female loggerhead turtle was born on this beach some 20 to 30 years ago and on May 17th, came back to nest! Experts say – she might come back to nest a couple more times.