PRESENTING: HATCHED TURTLE NEST TCC428 ON 6/26/11

The first sea turtle nest of the season on our stretch of beach hatched last night.  The video shows one "straggler" who was still in transit around 6:30 a.m. this morning.  It appeared as though at least 10 others had recently made the trip, as well, since there were about that many tracks coming from the nest and ending up down by the water's edge. Bon Voyage little guy/girl!  Hope to see you back on our beaches in about 20 years!

SUMMER BEGINS!

The first week of summer began with only a couple of possible new nests detected. The map now shows 32 nests - 26 as "possible nests", and 6 as "officially marked" nests. One of the marked nests (TCC428) was due to hatch this past week but, so far, no hatchlings have appeared. I'll need to go out tomorrow to double-check that nest. Another one (TDC502) is due to hatch this week, as well, so we may have some action in a few days. I hope that several of these "official marked nests" will hatch prior to any summer storms that may damage or destroy them, since they are all rather close to the high tide level.

A WHALE OF A DAY!

Finding sea turtle nests has been quite slow these past few weeks, but it was a very big week for beach walkers on Thursday morning. Unfortunatly, I had to drop off a car for maintenance that morning, so I did not walk the beach early in the morning as I normally would do. However, one of my condo neighbors called me to ask if I was on the beach, and if not, would I please take some photos of a dead whale that had been beached directly across from our building. I came back to the island and immediately parked in the public park across from our building. When I got to the top of the dune line I saw a very large dead whale laying on the beach at what was then low tide (see photos). After taking some photos, I asked the EAI field biologist who had found and "staked off" the area around the whale some questions about the whale. He didn't know the variety of whale that we were viewing, but thought that it had died of causes unknown - even though there were what appeared to be several large "bite marks" out of the whale's mid-section and tail. He said that sharks probably took those bites after the whale had died of other causes. He had measured the whale to be about 14 feet long, probably weighing from "1,200 to 1,400 pounds". He had called in his early morning find to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission after staking out the area around the carcass with bright orange tape usually used to stake out the sea turtle nests.

Later in the day, several organizations, including Harbor Branch of Fort Pierce, and Hubbs-SeaWorld Institute of Melbourne Beach were on site as a crew with a front-end loader pulled the whale up on the beach, then picked it up and traveled to the highway with it cradled in the front claw where it was deposited it in a large truck bed. The Fort Pierce Treasure Coast Newspaper on Friday reported (along with a photo of the dead whale) that "Blair Mase, marine mammal stranding coordinator for NOAA's southeast region in St. Petersburg, said that the necropsy will 'help establish some baseline information about beaked whales. We know so little about them because they're such an evasive, deep-water species'", he said. Later on in the day, the same neighbor that had alerted me to the whale's beaching received some additional information from a friend who had done some research on the beaked whale and found that they were, indeed, very rare. Here's a portion of that e-mail to my neighbor:

1. There are 23 different types of 'beaked' whales, but only four of them have been observed alive. The other 19 varieties are known only from found partial remains or fossils.

2. Of the 23 varieties, they range in adult growth from the full grown small variety being 13 feet up to the giant of the species with a length of 43 feet.

3. These whales have been around for many thousands of years.

4. Fossils have been found in South Africa.

5. Each variety has a different name.

6. Beaked whales have a life span that averages 25 - 40 years.

7. They primarily live in very deep waters off the continental shelf. They are very deep diving and feeding whales. They eat mostly squid and crustaceans by sucking in their prey and swallowing it whole.

Unfortunately, the EAI biologist also said that he had found a dead Loggerhead adult turtle further south on the beach and had buried it. It appears that conditions were very tough for some of our sea-going friends this past week, so we'll hope for better luck and more sea turtle nests next week!

ONE DOZEN AND COUNTING!

We have reached the one dozen level of sea turtle nests as of June 1, 2011 on our stretch of beach. Three of those nests are "documented" and "staked and roped off" by EAI (see red "T" pins on map). The other 9 are recorded by this writer (see yellow "star" pins on map). The yellow pins designate only that a "turtle crawl" was observed and that it was possible that a nest was laid. The red pins indicate that EAI has explored the nest and has determined that eggs were actually laid and the type of sea turtle that laid the eggs. For instance, a "CC" on the stakes indicates a Loggerhead sea turtle nest. A "DC" on the stakes indicates that a Leatherback sea turtle made the nest. The incubation period for both types of turtle eggs is generally between 45-60 days, so when you view the chart that is included in this posting, you will see that we have projected when the eggs will hatch for each of the twelve nests recorded so far.

"REJOICING" IN SAND!

Yes, it official! County officials and residents "rejoiced" because of an announcement by U.S. Representative Rooney on Wednesday that the Army Corps of Engineers will, according to an article in the "St. Lucie News Tribune" on Thursday, May 19, 2011, spend "$6.1 million to renourish Fort Pierce Beaches". As you may remember, the erosion of our stretch of beach was of major concern to this writer at the beginning of this turtle nesting season, since severe erosion and huge "escarpments" along our beaches (see previous blog entries) were restricting sea turtle access to our beaches. Unfortunately, the above described renourishment efforts can't begin until after this turtle nesting season has ended, but such an effort in between nesting seasons will drastically improve the beaches for the next turtle nesting season beginning in March/April of next year. Congratulations to Rep. Tom Rooney for taking up the cause and getting the Army Corps of Engineers to expend the dollars that were supposed to have been expended on beach renourishment this year anyway. Our thanks to Rep. Rooney for his part in getting some action relative to this problem.

Obviously, this project wasn't only critical to our nesting sea turtles. Probably more important in many minds was the adverse impact that not renourishing the beaches would have on our local economy. We do have a "tourist season", as well, and if that was the main consideration for getting renourishment money for our beaches, so be it! I'm sure that the "tourist dollar", and protecting public and private property along that stretch of beach were the prime factors but, at least, the sea turtles and their future nests and hatchlings will benefit along with the tourists.

Speaking of sea turtle nests, we now have 6 nests by my count. One is definitely a nest, as officially marked by the EAI, but the other 5 are only "turtle crawls" that appear to have nests that were laid closer to the dune line (sea oats, sea grasses, etc.). I'm going to keep track of those this year, again, because EAI is only marking "one out of every so many" - I'm guessing 1 out of 24 this year. So.... I will attempt to keep track of those "suspected" sea turtle nests, even though EAI is not. The attached map shows where the nests are to date along our stretch of beach. Wish us well for the remainder of the season!

FIRST SEA TURTLE NEST OF THE 2011 SEASON

Today was a big day in the scope of this 2011 sea turtle nesting season - at least for this stretch of "eroded and escarped" beach! Yes, as of 4/28/11, EAI (Environmental Associates, Inc.) has officially marked one nest along our section of beach (see attached photo). It was "posted and taped" as being laid on 4/28/11 and labeled as "CC 4/28" - meaning that they believe the nest was laid on 4/28/11 and is a "CC", or "loggerhead" nest. We found one other set of fresh "turtle crawl tracks", but that one was not officially staked out as was the first one. However, they did pound in a stake up on the dune line with the notation of "DC 5/2 to indicate that they believed this "nest" was a Leatherback nest laid on 5/2/11. Unfortunately, both nests were below the "escarpments" on the beach at those locations and probably won't provide much safety in case of additional storms and wave action along the beach throughout the summer. Also, it is obvious that EAI is not going to "stake out" (placing stakes and bright tape around the nest to outline the location of the nest) all nests that they find this season, so it will be up to us Turtle Dads to try to list all that they find, plus the ones that we find as a result of "crawls" and/or other signs that a nest has been laid. Hopefully, even though EAI will not stake out each and every nest that they find, we hope that they will at least do as they did with today's new nest and at least place a stake up near the dune line to indicate that they believe that a nest was laid somewhere between the ocean and that stake on the dune line. That might be enough to ensure the safety of some nests from human-made disturbance or destruction, even though it won't do much to protect the nests from Mother Nature.

SEMI-RENOURISHED BEACH & "TRASHY PHOTOS"

The "renourishment" project that the county took on all by itself, because the federal and state governments reneged on their obligation to pay for beach renourishment throughout the state this year, is completed and appears to have salvaged at least about 1700' of the beach running south of the jetty. While the renourishment has saved a good part of the city beach property and some private property immediately south of the jetty, it stopped too short to save any of the rest of the mile or so of beach and beach dune grasses running south beyond that portion that was renourished. To date, this Turtle Dad has not seen any nests since the beginning of the sea turtle nesting season (March/April) on any part of the entire beach running for a approximately one mile immediately south of the jetty. It appears that it will be a very sparse year for turtle nesting and hatching on our section of the south beach area.

Further south of the 1700 ' of beach that was just renourished, is the remainder of a mile or so of beach that has been severely eroded, to the extent that there are still some very steep "escarpments" on that portion of beach that will continue to obstruct sea turtles from advancing far enough onshore to lay their eggs. Many of these escarpments have been leveled somewhat, so there is still some hope that, eventually, some sea turtles will be able to crawl up on the beach far enough over the escarpments to actually dig their nests and lay their eggs. So far, the score is zero!

The good news is that there appears to be other people that walk the beach, in addition to this Turtle Dad, who are helping to keep the beach somewhat free of "litter". I know that you are expecting to see some photos of sea turtles and nests when you read this blog, but all I have to offer this time are some photos of the "semi-renourished" beach and some "trashy photos" showing that there are still some concientious beach walkers who try to keep the beach and surrounding environment "cleaned-up" after some less-than conscientious beach goers have left their trash on the public beaches. Thanks to those that are "pitching-in" to help keep the beaches litter-free!