More than 14,000 sea turtle nests have been counted in Indian River County this season, with several weeks remaining before nesting season officially ends Oct. 31.
Kendra Bergman, executive director of Coastal Connections, said the numbers have exceeded expectations.
“This nesting season has been a record-breaking season, one that we are very excited about. We knew it was going to be a good season. We had suspicions, I should say, that it would be a good season, but we didn't know how good,” she said.
About 10,000 of the county's nests belong to loggerheads, the highest number recorded since the county began tracking nests in 2005.
“I feel like every year we're saying, wow, it's been a record year for this, or wow, it's been a record year for these turtles. And that's not a bad thing, because when we're talking about recovery of an endangered species, these are really good, reoccurring things to be saying. That's hopeful for us,” she said.
She attributed the increase to conservation measures implemented and enforced at multiple levels of government and across different parts of the turtles' habitat.
“Definitely the result are the fruit of our labor. It is a result of regulation, enforcement of that regulation, both in the water, on nesting beaches, in foraging grounds, you name it,” she said.
Bergman said the benefits of those efforts could become more apparent over time as turtles born during earlier nesting seasons reach maturity and begin reproducing themselves.
“It takes a really long time for sea turtles to mature. So at this point, our estimate is that only two generations, we're right at two generations being born since their listing status on the endangered species list. And so it's not like in a turtle's world, there's been a lot of time,” she said.
Although the peak of nesting season has passed, turtles will continue nesting through Oct. 31. Bergman urged beachgoers to be especially mindful of nests late in the season, when they face more challenging conditions.
“These nests that are incubating at the later part of the nesting season have to make it through much harsher conditions on the beach. We start to see our nor'easter storms. We have the highest tides of the year during the month of October. They have a lot harder natural situation to make it through. So you just want to give them those nests their space,” she said.
The high number of green sea turtle nests laid later in the season could also extend the period when hatchlings emerge. Bergman said some nests could hatch as late as December.
“You're going to see a lot of those this year because so many green turtle nests have been laid in the later part of the nesting season that a lot of those nests are going to incubate even past the end of the formal sea turtle nesting season,” she said.
As the season winds down, Bergman encouraged residents and visitors to continue protecting nesting and hatching turtles by avoiding litter, limiting distracting lights and keeping their distance from the animals and their nests.