No new nests to report in our stretch of beach, so I cheated this morning and walked another 150 yards south to see the three nests that were there on the beach. Two of them were labeled as "DC", which indicates that these were Leatherback nests. It appears that they were laid in March (3/15 & 3/19, I believe). However, there was a surprise with the third nest. It is a Loggerhead nest and is the first one that I have seen this year (even though it is "outside" of our official stretch of beach!). It appears to have been laid on May 1, so it should hatch sometime mid-to end of June. It should have a good chance, since it is way up near the sea oats and the dune line, as you can see in the one photo. Also of interest was an article in the local newspaper this morning ("St. Lucie News Tribune", May 5, 2009) with a headline indicating that "sea turtles (are)drowning at (an)alarming rate". The article, written by Carl Safina, reported that many large sea turtles are caught by fishermen's long fishing lines and are drowned before they can be rescued by the commercial fishermen. His suggestion to resolve this problem is to have officials more closely monitor commercial fishermen (and more effectively enforce the laws already existing) so as to reduce the number of sea turtles that are killed this way each year.