Turtle False Crawls on Marco Beach

Attachments

Turtle Chart April 30

For the good news – Two loggerhead mommas deposited their clutch successfully on Marco’s Beach for the week of April-May 6th.

But for the NOT So Good News – according to The Sea Turtle Weekly Update for April 3-May 6th, five loggerheads came ashore but false crawled back to sea without deposing their clutch.

How can we tell? According to sea turtle experts, each species of sea turtle leaves a unique visible track pattern on the sand. Every morning as our sea turtle surveyors go out, they look for signs of loggerheads coming ashore and follow their tracks. 

The loggerheads crawl by alternating their flippers leaving behind a staggered comma or v-shaped track markings in the sand. In addition, the loggerhead also has a wavy and smoothed track center with no tail drag markings. That v-pattern is a big clue to surveyors on the beach giving them the exact direction the sea turtle came from and where it is heading. 

In a false crawl, the big momma heavy with eggs returned to the water. According to experts, it could be a number of things such as trash on the beach, lights, people on the beach or loud noises at night. Sea turtles can’t reverse so, they have to go over trash or around it. 

For 2024, let’s decrease false crawls in Marco Island.