Sea turtles need your help

[NotDeadYet]

Sea turtles need your help. A few of the things that have happened so far this nesting season:
A false crawl (turtle comes ashore to nest but returns to sea without depositing her eggs) that happened when the turtle tried to nest among stuff left on the beach.
Another false crawl that happened when people saw the turtle come ashore and got too close and took flash pictures.
A man called the Turtle Watch one evening and reported his dog barked and scared a turtle back into the water. More calls later in the evening about a turtle in the water looking to come onshore. Callers were asked to turn off their flashlights and leave the area, but no nest was found.
An early morning call from a tourist reporting a turtle on the beach the night before. The walker for that area missed the tracks, because there were almost none left that had not been trampled. The area supposed to be the nest was trampled also; no eggs were found by volunteers who dug looking for them. This one will not make it if there are eggs there, it is too close to the water. Probably too many people or too much stuff on the beach deterred her from coming farther up onto the beach and a safer location for a nest.
A turtle headed for the dune line fell into a hole and nested there; again probably too close to the water.
Another nest was missed by another walker, because it had been trampled beyond recognition. This one was found when someone on the beach told the walker about it. Volunteers were able to find those eggs.
A turtle came ashore and crossed the beach to the base of a partially covered sea wall, where the loose sand falling off the wall collapsed on her. It appears to be a nest, but the eggs were not found.
Few turtles are nesting here anymore, but the ones that do come have to fight for the only nesting habitat they have, which are our beaches at night. We have lights, noise, holes, loose dogs, flashlights, lots of people, lots of stuff, fireworks, seawalls, even portable dance floors down on the beach at night, and of course the ongoing dispute over who ?owns? what. But all of this is sea turtle nesting habitat, and that is the message that needs to be conveyed to everyone who uses the beaches.
For over a decade, the South Walton Turtle Watch has made numerous educational presentations, been the subject of countless newspaper articles, worked with the TDC and the county, and over that time the problems have gotten worse and the turtles have gotten fewer. The Turtle Watch is asking for help from the community to reach all these people on the beach at night so they know what to do, who to call if they see a turtle, how to behave to preserve nesting habitat, etc.
South Walton Turtle Watch wants help with brainstorming ideas to solve these problems and get the message out to everyone that the beaches at night are the only sea turtle nesting habitat there is and must be respected. The very same issues that make the beach a clean, pleasant experience for people are the issues that conserve nesting habitat.
If you have ideas or want to work on this, contact the Turtle Watch director, Sharon Maxwell, at swturtlewh@cox.net.

 

[GoodWitch58]

NDY, thanks for this post.

One of these days we will realize that turtles and their nests are essential to the ecology of the planet, much the same way we are realizing now how necessary bees are to the food production of the world...I hope we become respectful of the turtles before it is too late.

 

[cbk]

There a a few thing in life I am very adamant about. One of those things is the sea turtles. We need to do all we can to help them!!!!!!!!!

 

[Miss Critter]

I hope I'm not naive in thinking that most people feel the same way and would not intentionally disrupt sea turtles' nesting patterns. The majority probably fail to realize the extent that holes, lights and debris factor into nesting patterns. Newspaper articles are fine for locals, but most vacationers probably pay little attention. And I don't mean to imply that tourists are the sole problem, but during the season they probably do outnumber locals on the beach.
There are several free movie nights throughout the area, and we are blessed with an enormous amount of local talent. Might it be possible to video a clever short film about the effect of all this on our beautiful beaches, featuring children doing the speaking, and showing this short prior to the feature film on movie nights? We could probably reach many more people, and by targeting children could have them "teach the parents" so to speak. I can hear kids on the beach telling their parents "wait, I've got to fill in this hole before we leave" or "we need to pick up all our stuff so the turtles know where to go."

Just a thought.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Grayton looked fairly clear of crap at the end of the day, but some major holes and trenches remained. Glad to see people making the effort to remove their beach crap, daily. Now about those people leaving craters on the beach...

 

[Miss Kitty]

Grayton looked fairly clear of crap at the end of the day, but some major holes and trenches remained. Glad to see people making the effort to remove their beach crap, daily. Now about those people leaving craters on the beach...

That's good to hear. I imagine there are some tents and cr*p blown to smithereens on BMB. I wish there was a way to get word to the turtles to stay clear of that beach.

 

[Mango]

I know there's plenty of signage circulating, but, I thought I would introduce this because it is informative and fun to read. They don't look particularly expensive, and it also could be made into a family outing. At each beach access perhaps post information about different sea turtles, life span, endangered, habitats- then add - learn more about XYZ sea turtle at the next beach access.......

Another idea I had was perhaps the Turtle watch could also have turtle stuffed animals, and different items that could be perhaps purchased at a local storefront or at the TDC office with the profits being used for turtle protection and other awareness programs, like the movie Miss Critter suggested. Excellent idea BTW. On the poster, in that area, maybe tell people to go to a particular shoppe/ restaurant to pick up more info and or stuff animals, T-shirts etc. If I owned a store on 30A, I would be more than happy to have my name promoted in this manner.

Here's an example of one at Long Beach Island New Jersey.

 

[peapod1980]

Grayton looked fairly clear of crap at the end of the day, but some major holes and trenches remained. Glad to see people making the effort to remove their beach crap, daily. Now about those people leaving craters on the beach...

Eastern Lake area was jam packed with stuff left on the beach in every manner of abandonment--stray items here and there, an entire tent structure left up complete with piles of stuff "in" it, as well as a grouping of umbrellas and beach gear actually secured together. The latter is the one that really gets me--random items strewn around and left indicate careless, ignorant beachgoers, but people who will leave behind mounds of junk and make an effort to secure it there for the next day are ridiculous.

 

[Smiling JOe]

...especially with the summer storms which blow up quickly out of nowhere, sometimes blowing chairs, toys, umbrellas, and tents far from their abandoned spots, submerging them in the Lakes, or tossing them into the dunes or bird nesting areas.

 

[SaraiRayne]

Seriously I would also love some ideas. I survey Okaloosa Island and Destin Beach for nests and Destin is the worst. Trash and huge holes. We have two nests and today I had three false crawls. I am seriously getting worried about the turtles.