Sea turtle nesting season has begun along Florida’s Treasure Coast, bringing the annual return of turtles to local beaches to lay their eggs.
The nesting season officially runs from March 1 through Oct. 31. According to Kendra Bergman, early signs suggest turtles had a head start prior to the season start in parts of South Florida.
“I believe there was already over 15 leatherback sea turtle nests laid in southeast Florida. So they got a little head start this year, which is really fun,” Bergman said.
Those early nests have largely appeared in the southern portion of the Treasure Coast and nearby areas, a region that serves as an important nesting ground for leatherback sea turtles.
“In Indian River County, we're still waiting patiently for our first nest, but there are nests in Martin County, St. Lucie County, and Palm Beach County. So they're definitely on their way north, and Indian River and Brevard County are in the most northern range for their standard nesting area, so it's only a matter of days,” Bergman said.
While leatherbacks arrived first, other species are expected to follow as the season progresses and temperatures rise. Green sea turtles and Loggerheads will be found more commonly in Brevard and Indian River.
“The peak of the nesting season is during the month of June, and then immediately following that in the month of July, we actually have a whole lot of those nests beginning to hatch,” Bergman said.
For residents and visitors hoping to observe nesting activity, Bergman recommends participating in organized turtle walks led by trained guides to reduce the risk of disturbing the animals.
“They're not gonna come up and lay their nest in an area where they see a lot of movement and a lot of shadows and a lot of big objects. They will avoid that area, and if you just so happen to see a nesting sea turtle or that's attempting or emerging out of the water, and you get too close to her, she's gonna get scared and turn around and never make the nest that she just spent all of that energy trying to make,” Bergman said.
Beachgoers can also take several steps on their own to make nesting conditions safer for turtles and hatchlings.
“Some of the best things you can do is always pick up trash within the beach. You should knock down any sand castles or sculptures and fill in any holes and make sure the beach is naturally as flat as possible. Be conscious of your lighting. If you're standing on the beach at night looking at a property and you see light, so does a sea turtle. And so you want to make sure that those lights are, in a perfect world, turned off. But if you can't turn those lights off, you want to make sure that they're compliant with the local lighting ordinance to make sure that they are sea turtle friendly,” Bergman said.
Wildlife officials advise anyone who encounters a nesting turtle to keep a safe distance and avoid using lights or otherwise disturbing the animal while it lays eggs.
Conservation groups say these efforts have helped support rising nesting numbers across the region in recent years.
“Every other year we continue to see what is the new record nesting high. We don't really know exactly how the 2026 nesting season is gonna fall into this new kind of cycle. It maybe won't be a record year, but it's definitely gonna be a great year,” Bergman said.
Organizations such as Coastal Connections host guided turtle walks along the Treasure Coast during the height of the season. The group’s tours typically run Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights beginning in June and continuing into July, when nesting activity is at its peak.