| Sea Turtle Nest Monitoring |
 Sea Turtles in Rookery Bay Reserve Three species of sea turtle are known to inhabit the waters of Rookery Bay Reserve. Kemp’s ridley Lepidochelys kempii) and Atlantic green (Chelonia midas) turtles are both listed as Endangered species, and the loggerhead (Caretta caretta) is listed as a Threatened species. The loggerhead is the most common species of sea turtle seen along Reserve beaches. Loggerhead Sea Turtles Loggerhead sea turtles live in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Loggerheads feed on mollusks, crabs and jellyfish. They reach weights between 300 and 500 pounds, and can live more than 60 years. Females come ashore to lay eggs on Reserve beaches each summer (May through August). Loggerhead populations are decreasing worldwide due to loss of nesting habitat, predation of eggs by raccoons and other animals, and ingestion of floating trash.  Nesting Activity Rookery Bay Reserve resource management specialists work in cooperation with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Collier County Natural Resources and the Conservancy of SW Florida to preserve this threatened species. Reserve staff and volunteers patrol the beaches of Sea Oat Island, Cape Romano, Kice Island, and other islands in the Ten Thousand Islands five days a week during nesting season to locate nests and place cages over them so that the eggs will be protected from predation by raccoons. Each nest contains between 80 to 120 eggs. After roughly 60 days, baby turtles emerge from the nests under the cover of darkness and crawl to the water, swimming until they reach relative safety in seaweed beds before being swept away on currents across the sea. Resource managers follow up on each nest to document the number of hatched eggs to get a better understanding of nesting success. Although cages cannot protect nests from inundation by high tides or fire ant predation, the incorporation of caging efforts has increased nesting success in the Reserve tremendously. Annual Nest Monitoring Reports 2009 Sea turtle nesting was down during 2009 within the Cape Romano Complex with a total of 40 loggerhead turtle nests. Unfortunately 11 of these nests were either washed out or destroyed by raccoons. Of the remaining 29 nests, all of which were caged against raccoons, there were a total of 2170 eggs, with 749 eggs hatching. You can help our sea turtles hatchling success rate by not feeding raccoons and keeping vigil for sea turtles in our waters while boating.  2008 2008 is off to a great start, with sea turtle nest activity exceeding 2007 numbers by far. This year, Reserve staff have incorporated monitoring nesting activity in the Ten Thousand Islands in addition to the Cape Romano complex. As of July 21, 75 nests have been recorded at the Cape Romano complex: 5 hatched, with 509 emerged out of 551 eggs. This gives us 92.3% emergence success. These nests are averaging a 49 day incubation rate, compared to the 67 day incubation rate of the Ten Thousand Islands complex. 67 nests have been documented in the Ten Thousand Islands: 5 have hatched with 368 emerged out of 496 eggs, yielding a 74.1% emergence success to date. 2007 The 2007 sea turtle nesting season was down from 2006 at the Cape Romano nesting complex, which includes Cape Romano, Morgan Beach, New Beach and Kice Island. Reserve staff recorded 26 false crawls and 35 nests. 15 of the nests were destroyed by raccoons before staff could erect cages over them, and 3 nests were washed out by summer storms. Morgan Beach and Kice Island supported 9 nests each. Of 1,536 eggs laid, 1,173 hatchlings made it to the sea, yielding a net hatching success of 76%.  2006 Reserve biologists documented an astounding 3,194 hatchlings from the Cape Romano nesting complex (Cape Romano, Kice Island and Morgan beach) during the Reserve’s first season of caging nests. This represents a roughly 50% increase in nesting success over previous years before caging efforts began. |
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