Saturday, November 14, 2026
A pink flag indicating a false crawl. For the week of May 30th through June 5th, 194 false crawls were recorded on Marco.
Sea turtles face many dangers as they come ashore to nest, and the loss of nesting sites to coastal construction is a significant reason for false crawls on Marco Island.
On Marco, the nesting sea turtles just came off a devastating month of May this year with 294 False Crawls mostly occurring at the dredging site on Sand Dollar Island. For May 2022, forty-six (46) false crawls were recorded; 214 false crawls were recorded for the entire year of 2022. Not included in the weekly report are the three dead loggerheads reported between May 2, 2023, and May 16, 2023 (one on Marco, one on Hideaway, and one on Sand Dollar Island). Still climbing, last week 194 false crawls were recorded (70 from the same time in 2022).
Ninety percent of all sea turtles in the U.S. lay their eggs on Florida beaches. Marco Island beaches are important for the conservation of these endangered creatures. According to sea turtle experts, sea turtles have a great sense of direction and can sense the Earth’s magnetic field and use that as a compass to return to the same beach every year to lay eggs, often within 100 yards of where the previous nest was located.
Sea turtles coming ashore to nest will encounter more coastal disturbance in Marco Island as the Collier County contractors will be adding 37,000 tons of sand to the beach from Cape Marco north to Eagles Nest on South Collier Blvd. The project is expected to last two weeks.
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