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Sea Turtles

Sea Turtle Research and Monitoring

Sea Turtle Nesting Stats as of May 17, 2013
	Nests	False Crawls	Hatches
Sanibel East End	1	3	0
Sanibel West End	6	19	0
Captiva	4	3	0
TOTAL	11	25	0

Please do not disturb nesting sea turtles. There have been reports of several nesting attempts disturbed by onlookers. If a turtle fails after several nesting attempts, she will eject her eggs into the Gulf, so failed attempts -- false crawls -- are serious. Learn more...

In 2009, a leatherback sea turtle nested on Sanibel, the first known documented leatherback nest in Lee and Collier counties.

Keep up to date with the sea turtle program at our blog.

Sea turtles are among the world’s oldest creatures. These ancient reptiles have long fascinated people around the world. On Sanibel and Captiva, where the beaches provide a subtropical nesting area for threatened loggerhead and endangered green turtles, more than 100 island residents volunteer each summer as part of the Conservation Foundation’s Sea Turtle Research and Monitoring Program. The program operates under a permit from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Each day during nesting season, May to October, the 18 miles of Gulf beaches from the Sanibel Lighthouse to the tip of Captiva are checked beginning at dawn. Nests are identified and marked for monitoring and protection. Later in the season new hatches are evaluated and recorded. The statewide collection of data helps inform management decisions to help in the protection of sea turtles. Among other components of SCCF’s sea turtle program are projects ensuring that beach habitat is suitable for nesting and the co-ordination of data collection on local sea turtle strandings. You can contact the Sea Turtle office by e-mail: seaturtle@sccf.org

Sea turtles are among the world’s oldest creatures. These ancient reptiles have long fascinated people around the world. On Sanibel and Captiva, where the beaches provide a subtropical nesting area for threatened loggerhead and endangered green turtles, more than 100 island residents volunteer each summer as part of the Conservation Foundation’s Sea Turtle Research and Monitoring Program. The program operates under a permit from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Each day during nesting season, May to October, the 18 miles of Gulf beaches from the Sanibel Lighthouse to the tip of Captiva are checked beginning at dawn. Nests are identified and marked for monitoring and protection. Later in the season new hatches are evaluated and recorded. The statewide collection of data helps inform management decisions to help in the protection of sea turtles.

Among other components of SCCF’s sea turtle program are projects ensuring that beach habitat is suitable for nesting and the co-ordination of data collection on local sea turtle strandings.

You can contact the Sea Turtle office by e-mail: seaturtle@sccf.org


A loggerhead burying her nest	A rare daytime hatch. Note the hatchling crawling to the right	Nests are dug 3 days after they hatch by an SCCF permittee, who counts the shells and rescues any stragglers.

Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation - Come Explore Our Natural World