We’re down to a total of four nests remaining on Bonita Beach, one of which has been turned into a launch pad for the baby turtles that are due within the next week. The nest with the launch pad is very high up on the beach and is in an area where night time lights can be a problem. The hope is that the launch pad will direct the turtles toward the gulf and away from any problems that could hinder their progress.
The Launch pad
There were two more nests that hatched last week which brings the total number of nests hatched on Bonita Beach to 32 for the season. If all goes according to schedule we’ve got three to four more weeks on the beach to monitor the remaining nests.
The beach was unusually quite on this Friday morning with only one early morning walker (fellow Turtle Trackers Nancy) and no one out fishing, swimming or kayaking. Even the birds were a little sluggish this morning. Perhaps we just got there too early.
Sun Rising at Bonita Beach
Good friend and local fire fighter, Bubba Pilkenton, was kind enough to send these great shots of a Jelly Fish that he took from his Sea-Doo about two miles off shore last week.
Jellyfish - two miles off shore
Could this be a Man o' War?
Our daring off shore photographer - Bubba
Don’t forget you can follow a group of four sea turtles that have nested on Keewaydin Island. They each have transmitters that provide their locations every other day. It’s interesting to see how far some travel, and how close to Keewaydin Island some stay. If you haven’t checked out this Conservancy of Southwest Florida project please do so here.
TO OUR SURPRISE, another nest hatched this past week. In our Bonita Beach Zone 9, 10, and 11 we are now down to our last six nests. In all, we have had a total of 36 nests in the two and a half mile stretch of beach. That’s not bad, but it’s not what we were expecting this season.
Big Bird was at the beach checking nests with us.
In the 2008 sea turtle nesting season, we had 52 nests cataloged and marked. In 2007 we had 38 total nests. We’d like to see the numbers increase, but instead they are on the decline.
Sea turtles have been around for more than 110 million years, even before the dinosaurs roamed the earth. It is hard to believe that the sea turtles were abundant at one time. Now the sea turtle population worldwide is dangerously low. I have read that all six sea turtles species found in U.S. waters are listed as either threatened or endangered. This is why we must make every effort no matter how SMALL to always do our best to help our sea turtles each season.
Summer ends but its beauty does not.
As the season slowly comes to an end, it is fun for us to look back at all the new people we have met. Our turtle tracking journey is always an adventure to see who we may meet or what we may find each week. Today we had the opportunity to meet two very lucky fishermen after 7:00 a.m. They did some casting for bait fish and were very very successful. Shortly after that they had setup their fishing station at the rock jetty in zone 11. In less than a minute they were reeling in Lady Fish. TGIF!
Friday fishing on Bonita Beach was reel easy.
When we went over to investigate, the catch of the morning was off the hook and ready to be cut up. Our lucky fisherman explained how his morning catch was going to be used to catch tarpon. Their weekend was off to a good start!
Now it's time to catch tarpon!
We hope your weekend is a good one as well. We thank you for reading and we will see you next week!
Today’s turtle tracking was a very very quiet one. Almost too quiet. You would think because it’s the Labor Day weekend that the fishermen, beachcombers, and early morning joggers would be out and about starting their holiday weekend. There was no one out on the beach at all. They must have all gone on vacation elsewhere. Even the birds and fish appeared to be on vacation this morning.
My visit to the beach was really short. Once again I have no new tracks to report. I truly believe we will not have any new nests on Bonita Beach. There are now seven nest remaining in our Zone 9, 10 and 11. The last lucky seven! Not one nest is expected to hatch in the upcoming week, so all I can report is that the baby sea turtles are nesting and resting well. All seven nests were very quiet; I did not even find a ghost crab that I could tango with today either.
This week fellow turtle tracker and author, Sandy Lender, found a cool webcam video of baby sea turtles hatching. Now this is a must see. You just won’t see this on your average trip to the beach, so enjoy watching the hatchlings making their first tracks on the beach.
Turtle Webcam Records Loggerhead Sea Turtle Hatch in the Lower Florida Keys
This is my last week going solo turtle tracking. Steve will back next week. It’s much more fun as twoturtletrackers than as one. Happy Labor Day weekend everyone and thanks for reading!
I read a great article by Eric Staats of the Naples Daily News from August 29th that I enjoyed.
Eric reports on a nesting loggerhead sea turtle from Keewaydin Island that was tagged with a transmitter and how the data is helping to track her nesting and her location while she is away from her nesting home. “The satellite tag transmits data about her location every other day, and then is charted on a map posted at www.seaturtle.org.”
Check it out and see where the tagged loggerhead sea turtle travels to and how many miles she goes. It’s truly amazing!
Hi there! It’s me, Julie, reporting since Steve is in California this week. Yes, I had to brave the beach on my own. On Friday I had to drop Steve off at the airport at 5:30AM, so I drove to Bonita Beach access #10 to start my turtle tracking day just a bit earlier than normal. My turtle tracking started in the dark.
When I got on the beach I realized that I could not see much of anything so I decided to walk to beach access #9 and wait until I had enough daylight to start my nest checking and turtle tracking. I got down to beach access #9 and to my surprise I found a big bait bucket and a hot coffee waiting by the shoreline. I looked up and could see a large silhouette of the early bird fisherman hauling more equipment to his fishing post. I decided to move on down the beach a bit so I would not frighten him in the dark.
I was only 20 feet away from the fishing post when I heard someone with a steady running pace coming from behind me. I turned in the darkness to find an early morning jogger coming right at me. I was able to quickly step aside to avoid an early morning head-on collision at the beach. Thank God too! That is certainly not the kind of thing that I’d want to have happened to me and find it posted in the newspaper the next day either.
As soon as I had enough light I started my nest checking. All looked good in zone #9. There are only two nests left and there were no signs of ants or ghost crabs. Zone #10 is nest free at this time and from our reports there have not been any new nests as of two weeks ago on Bonita Beach. Things are coming to a close for turtle nesting I believe. Now in zone #11 we have six nest that remain. Only one of the nests in this zone is due next week, so unfortunately I have no nest hatchings to report for today, nor did I have any hatchlings to rescue.
Bonita Beach zone #11 nest due to hatch
Since my nest checking started early and finished early I was able to witness the arrival of all the early “bird” fishing that took place in zone #11. It was absolutely amazing! I have never seen the birds so active in their morning feeding.
The schools of fish were actively jumping and popping out of the water left and right. I was able to snap a couple of pictures and a video of the fishing extravaganza that took place. It’s sad to say but the fisherman that I saw at 6AM missed all the excitement that was happening just two zones away. If you like fishing and are in the Bonita Springs area, I highly recommend zone #11 by the rock jetty for fishing. If you bring a casting net, you will have instant bait without a doubt. In today’s economic tough times, free bait is perfect for all budgets.
Birds of every size took part in the early bird fishing.
Early bird bathers just around the corner from the rock jetty.
Early bird groomers preparing for their day at Bonita Beach.
Here is my video that I took of the fishing extravaganza that took place. I was pleased that I arrived early to the beach so I was there at the right time to witness true early “bird” fishing.
As for the the FGCU red drift algae study, well, there’s still one remaining sample. There still seems to be some red drift algae remaining on Bonita Beach. It does not have an odor and will most likely wash away with the next big storm.
The Bonita Beach shoreline landscape is constantly changing from one week to the next. Some things we have control over and some we do not. As we volunteer our time each week to track and protect the loggerhead turtles and their nests, we also gather the items left on the beach that could harm the turtles. Please be kind to our environment and our wild life and collect all the articles that you bring to the beach. Items like plastic sandwich baggies and balloons can make it into the Gulf and be easily mistaken for food and harm the loggerhead turtles. If we do our part, and let mother nature do her part, the beach will always be a wonderful place to enjoy now and years to come. Now that’s worth celebrating!
A simple balloon that is left on the beach could be harmful to loggerhead turtles feeding in our Gulf. Photographed: August 28, 2009. by J. Campbell.
As always…. thanks for reading! I will see you again next week going “solo” and counting down 6 more weeks of reporting to go before our turtle tracking season comes to an official close.
