How Baby Turtles Flourish on Florida’s Storm-Struck Beaches

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla.—A band of researchers barely notice as the sun peeps over the Atlantic Ocean, sending orange streaks shooting across jagged gray clouds.

It’s treasure they’re seeking.

So as they set out across wave-smoothed sand, they’re focused only on spotting clues that will lead them to their prize.

Every morning from April 15 until Oct. 31, so-called turtle patrols embark on a similar quest across Florida coastlines.

In cooperation with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), they document, monitor, study, and try to protect the nests of five species of sea turtles that venture onto the state’s beaches.

All are officially listed as threatened or endangered. There are seven sea turtle species worldwide.

When the time is right for nesting, a female turtle crawls from the waves at night and lays her eggs—usually about 115 at a time—in a hole she digs in Florida’s sugary beach sand.

But Florida’s beaches don’t make the gentlest nurseries for baby turtles.

Severe storms periodically lash dunes concealing turtle nests, as Hurricane Debby did on Aug. 5.

Debby was the fourth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and runs through Nov. 30.

In May, forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted this year would bring “above-normal hurricane activity in the Atlantic.”

The 2023 hurricane season brought strong weather to Florida, too. It ranked fourth for most named storms since 1950. There were 20.

Seven evolved into hurricanes; three intensified into major hurricanes.

Only Hurricane Idalia made landfall, thrashing Keaton Beach, Florida as a Category 3 storm, and causing storm surges of seven to 12 feet of water in low-lying areas.

The weakest hurricanes, with winds of 74 to 95 mph, are Category 1 storms. The most violent are the Category 5 systems, leaving swaths of destruction caused by winds greater than 155 mph.

But despite the harsh weather spiraling around and across Florida, sea turtles—protected by both Florida and federal law—seem to be thriving.

Last year was a record year for sea turtle nests in Florida.

“Every year we do lose some sea turtle nests to hurricanes,” said Lucas Meers, coordinator for the Mickler’s Landing Turtle Patrol.

“I am a little bit concerned with the higher intensity of hurricanes [predicted] earlier in the season” this year.

But mother sea turtles seem to know the risks instinctively, said Justin Perrault, vice president of research at Loggerhead Marinelife Center.

So they don’t put all their eggs in one basket, so to speak.

High Stakes Forensics

On this day, a few minutes into their daily hike, volunteers on patrol with Meers spot the prize they sought.

A set of tracks stretches from the surf to a dune and back to the water.

To the uninformed beach walker, the pattern suggests a small child perched behind a teeny steering wheel may have driven a battery-operated car across the sand in a large, wavering loop.

But turtle enthusiasts immediately know what happened here.

A female sea turtle lumbered out of the water, possibly crawling onto land for the first time in years. Males don’t leave the surf.

With plodding determination, she churned the beach sand with alternating flippers, slowly dragging her 300-pound body to the spot deemed best for a nest.

Instantly, Meers identified the species of turtle that was here. Loggerhead.

Meers instructs his team, “Take photos of everything before touching anything.”