As of approximately June 30, 2012 there have been several sea turtle nests that have hatched along our stretch of beach. The sea turtle nest chart included in this posting is current as of July 4, 2012. The photo of the Leatherback hatch-ling is from a previous year. This blogger has not yet seen any live hatch-lings - only a few who didn't make it to the ocean after climbing out of the nest. Unfortunately, we are seeing a number of nests destroyed by "flooding", where the nest is too close to the shore and the high tides wash over the nests and flood them with water which then stops the eggs incubation cycle. Many nests were laid too close to the shore line this year, because the sand near the Jetty is either too hard (that area of the beach was re-nourished this winter), or the escarpments along that area were too high for the adult sea turtles to climb far enough up on the beach to dig a nest and lay their eggs. Any additional storms this year will increase the number of nests flooded or destroyed. So far this season, there have only been 5 nests that are known to have been destroyed. Keep your fingers crossed for another "quiet" year as far as storms go along our coast.
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