NEW SEA TURTLE SEASON HAS BEGUN!

After ..........

Welcome back!  OK, so the sea turtle nesting season officially began on March 1st and this blog wasn't started up until today - a very special day indeed, since it's my birthday!  However, the real reason that this blogger is a little behind in starting up this blog again this season is because of a few other important factors.  One of those factors can be seen in the photos that are included with this entry.  They show a great improvement in the amount of beach that we now have along about 3/4 of a mile running south of the Jetty.  This big improvement was due to a month's worth of 24/7 beach renournishment activity by the Army Corps of Engineers that ended as of March 18.  Even though they did not go far enough south on our shore - it should have been at least a mile in order to replenish some of the serious beach erosion that was noted in earlier entries to this blog, the renourishment that did take place can be seen in the photos.  A good comparison would be with the photos in this new entry and one of the previous entries back in October and November.  Quite a contrast!  The new "beach" up by the Jetty is approximately 330 ft. if depth from the sea grass line (dune line) to the water!  The depth of the beach down about 3/4 of a mile from the Jetty is about 150 feet. As such, the renourishment along this stretch of beach should improve the chances of sea turtles nesting along that section and enhance the possibility of seeing some hatchlings approximately 45- 60 days after the eggs in those new nests are laid.  That's the main reason that the "turtle nesting season" actually only began a few days ago for this stretch of beach.  In fact, one of the researchers from the EAI (Environmental Associates, Inc.) that patrol our beaches to record the sea turtle nesting, indicated to me today that they have found only about three Leatherback nests so far this season, and all three are much farther down the beach from us - beyond the mile or so of  beach that I cover when doing my "Turtle Dads" project each season. 

Before...........

I hope that you will continue to read this blog as we go through "the season".  I'll try to keep you posted on the happenings along our beach - at least as far as sea turtle nesting and hatchings go.