More than 58,000 loggerhead sea turtle nests were counted on 250 miles of Florida beaches this year. |
In a positive sign regarding the loggerhead sea turtle (
Caretta caretta), the 2012 March-October nesting season of
loggerhead sea turtles in the state of Florida marked the second highest counting of nests since nests were first counted in 1989. According to the Palm Beach Post, surveys of loggerhead sea turtle nests this year counted 58,172 loggerhead nests on 250 miles of Florida beaches. This number is just below the high in 1998 when 59,918 nests were counted. The lowest number of nests counted stands at 28,074, in 2007.
It looks like we’ve had a reversal of the steep declines we had about a decade ago. But we can’t pop the champagne cork yet. Loggerheads and other sea turtle species still face many challenges, Dr. Blair Witherington, a research scientist with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission told the paper.
In addition to loggerheads, green and leatherback sea turtles have had strong nest counts. The number of leatherback nests counted this year stands at 515, compared to 45 nests counted on the same beaches in 1989. Surveyors counted 6,054 nests this year, which is more than 10 times as many counted in 1989 on the same beaches in Florida.