Daytona Beach, FL – No matter what happens between now and Halloween, Volusia County is going to have one of its best sea turtle nesting seasons ever.
Officials with the county’s Sea Turtle Habitat Conservation Plan say 666 nests have been counted on Volusia’s shoreline to date since the season informally started on May 1st.
Program Manager Jennifer Winters says that number is the 3rd highest on record in Volusia, trailing only the 677 found in 2013 and the 919 discovered in 2012.
“We have 616 loggerhead nests, 36 green sea turtle nests and 14 leatherbacks, which is also a record,” Winters added. “We’ve never had that many leatherback nests in 1 season.”
Volusia averages between 400 and 500 sea turtle nests a year, with 2014’s 428 falling within that range. 414 were loggerheads and 7 were greens, with 5 leatherbacks and 2 rare Kemp’s ridley nests rounding out the list.
94,369 sea turtle nests were counted in Florida last year, according to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The sea turtle nesting season started out early in 2015, with at least 7 nests spotted by Volusia’s sea turtle watchers in April, including 4 leatherback nests and 3 loggerheads.
The high number of green nests in Volusia and throughout the state is a particularly encouraging sign for a species that was nearly extinct in the 1980’s, but Winters says it’s nowhere near a record locally.
“Greens are really hard to track just because they were in such decline,” Winters noted. “We’ve had as many as 55 [nests] in multiple years.”
Over 12,000 green nests have been found so far this year at the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in Brevard and Indian River counties, usually the epicenter for Florida sea turtle nesting along the Atlantic coast.
Many of Volusia’s nests have been found at the extreme ends of the county, either at Canaveral National Seashore near the Brevard line or North Peninsula State Park near the Flagler County line.
Winters thinks the high numbers are likely a result of federal and state government protection efforts made since the passage of the Endangered Species Act in the 1970’s.
Having said that, Winters doubts 2015 will set a new record because, historically, most turtles lay their nests before September.
Sea turtle nesting season officially ends on October 31st.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.