The Conservancy of Southwest Florida sea turtle program is one of the longest continuously running sea turtle monitoring research projects in the world.
what we do
Our work seeks to gain a better understanding of what these animals are doing in and out of the water while protecting as many nests and hatchlings as possible. The science team monitors sea turtle nesting activity, prevents nest predation by resident wildlife, and conducts cooperative research with agencies and universities to gain insight into the life history of sea turtles. Most of the turtles recorded on Keewaydin are loggerheads, although green turtle nests are periodically encountered. In 2015, we documented the first leatherback nest on Keewaydin. It was also the first leatherback nest ever recorded in Collier County.
During sea turtle nesting season, we patrol Keewaydin Island to locate nesting adults or their tracks so that we can cage the eggs to protect them from predators. We apply PIT tags, flipper tags, and measure the adult. In this manner, the adult sea turtle can be identified and its nesting history documented over the years.
Once each nest hatches, Conservancy scientists determine the hatching success and determine the fate of each nest, such as whether it was washed out, flooded, depredated, or successful. This information helps to determine the overall success of the nesting season on Keewaydin Island from year to year. In addition, this helps to track population trends over time to see if the sea turtle population that nests on Keewaydin Island is increasing, decreasing, or staying the same.
The nesting records some of the Keewaydin turtles now span well over 25 years. What is amazing is that baby sea turtles that we helped get to the Gulf of Mexico at the start of this project could now be returning as adults to lay their eggs.
Watch this episode of Experts and Insights to hear from longtime Conservancy Biologist Dave Addison on the history and success of the program
COLLABORATIVE SEA TURTLE RESEARCH PROJECTS
We conduct independent and cooperative research with various universities and Federal, State and County agencies to advance the overall knowledge about the life history of sea turtles.
The east coast of Florida is mainly producing female sea turtles. Keewaydin Island’s hatchlings are a good mix or mostly males. It shows how important Keewaydin really is to the population of turtles.
- Jill Schmid, Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and former Conservancy sea turtle intern.
Hatchling Sex Ratio Study
In 2001, the Conservancy teamed up with Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve to determine the sex ratio of hatchlings on Keewaydin Island. The sex of a loggerhead sea turtle is usually determined by nest temperature during the middle third of the 55 day incubation period. Nest temperature can be affected by a number of factors, including nest location and rainfall amount in a given year. There are typical temperature ranges that can be used to predict whether or not a nest will produce primarily males or females. Generally, the hotter the nest, the more females, hence the saying “hot chicks and cool dudes.”
If there are chances to help fellow researchers out, or provide a window into the lives of these animals, you just say yes. That’s how you develop a rapport with your colleagues.
- Dave Addison, Conservancy of Southwest Florida sea turtle biologist
It is expected that only 1 in 1,000 sea turtles survive to adulthood. A loggerhead sea turtle nest can contain anywhere from 20 to over 100 eggs, which equates to 1 hatchling out of 10 nests that will survive.
Biological Sampling
collecting tissue samples
With our ability to interact with nesting loggerheads, we have been able to provide graduate students and facility at many universities with tissue samples for population studies and foraging area assessment with stable isotope analysis.
Some of these cooperative efforts have been on-going for a long as 10 years.
satellite tagging
Conservancy biologists and University of Central Florida began a satellite tagging program in 2009. The objective was to determine if loggerheads return to the same foraging areas year after year just as they return to the same beach to nest. Additionally, since nesting females lay multiple nests during the same year, we wanted to determine where sea turtles that laid nests on Keewaydin Island went in between nesting sessions. We are also interested in identifying migratory pathways, as well as specific foraging areas that are of importance to loggerhead turtles during the years when they do not nest. Recently we have teamed up with Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation to extend our project to include green sea turtles on Keewaydin and Sanibel Islands and as of 2021 with FWC to retag some of our earlier satellite-tagged turtles to see if they return to the same foraging areas over a decade later. If you would like to see where the turtles migrated to, you can visit them at www.seaturtle.org.
partners
- Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
- Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
The universities involved include:
We have also provided a platform for graduate students to conduct their MS research at:
LOGGERHEAD SEA TURTLE FACTS
How much do you know about loggerhead sea turtles? Scroll over each tile to learn more about these native Florida reptiles!
Scientific name
Caretta caretta
Length of an adult
3 feet
Weight of an adult
250 - 300 pounds
Lifespan
Greater than 50 years
Habitat
Widely distributed throughout temperate and tropical regions of the ocean. Here in Florida, sea turtles use our patch reef ecosystems, just like you can see in our 5,000 gallon Patch Reef Aquarium, as foraging grounds.
Diet
Loggerhead sea turtles are primarily carnivorous, eating items such as crustaceans, mollusks, jellyfish, fish, and occasionally seagrass and algae.
Protection Status
Threatened in Florida, endangered in other parts of the world.
Threats
As hatchlings, sea turtles face many natural predators, but as adults their only predators are sharks and humans. Human threats include habitat loss, poaching, pollution, litter (such as plastic bags), commercial fishing, and boat collisions.
How you can help
Clean up our beaches, use reusable bags instead of plastic bags, support fisheries that use turtle safe devices on their nets, and slow down in designated channel zones.
