Imagine the surprise felt by sea turtle lovers when the number of egg-filled clutches laid on Southwest Florida beaches during last summer’s nesting season totaled a normal year despite shorelines transformed by Hurricane Ian.Even better: The mommas kept coming.Female sea turtles often return to the beach of their birth to nest every three years or so, which made understandable the fears of the large and active cadre of turtle volunteers that Category 5 Ian in September 2022 had rendered nesting beaches so unrecognizable the females would be lost, search aimlessly, then dump their eggs at sea.
Sea Turtle nesting season has just come to an end in Southwest Florida, but on the islands of Sanibel and Captiva, despite a record number of nests laid by sea turtles this year, the number of hatchlings making it to the ocean was the lowest it's been in half a decade.
The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation reported that the last remaining sea turtle nest on Sanibel and Captiva was inventoried on Oct. 13, concluding the i
The first Herpeton Conference took place on Sept. 23-26 at the Florida SouthWestern State College campus in Fort Myers. The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundat