Tyler Treadway

tyler.treadway@tcpalm.com

Loggerhead sea turtles are like a team coming off a championship season. As sea turtle nesting season on the Treasure Coast officially begins March 1, the question is: Can they repeat?

Very doubtful, says a local turtle expert.

In 2016, loggerheads, by far the most common sea turtles on the Treasure Coast, laid a record number of nests both locally and statewide.

Shattered the record, in fact, with 122,706 nest statewide.

The previous record was set in 1995, said Niki Desjardin, senior project manager at Ecological Associates in Jensen Beach, which monitors beaches in sections of Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties.

On the Treasure Coast, loggerheads laid 27,413 nests — also a record.

Because of last year's records, Desjardin is expecting fewer loggerhead nests this year.

"Females don't lay eggs every year," she said, "so you never see two high-count years in a row."

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The other sea turtles that frequent Treasure Coast beaches, green turtles and leatherbacks, had low nest numbers in 2016, "so we're expecting big things from them this year," Desjardin said.

Green turtles in particular are known for nesting every other year like clockwork, she said.

"They had a record year in 2015," Desjardin said, "so 2017 should be a really big year for greens. Leatherbacks aren't as predicable. They can go a year or two or three before they nest again."

Also playing a role in nesting numbers:

Food supply: If sea turtles don’t get enough to eat, they’re less likely to reproduce. (Because you’re probably wondering: Loggerheads eat a variety of clams, crabs and other shellfish; greens eat plants, particularly sea grass and algae; leatherbacks eat mostly jellyfish.)

If sea turtles don’t get enough to eat, they’re less likely to reproduce. (Because you’re probably wondering: Loggerheads eat a variety of clams, crabs and other shellfish; greens eat plants, particularly sea grass and algae; leatherbacks eat mostly jellyfish.) Weather: A lot of nests could be lost to beach erosion if the Treasure Coast gets turbulent weather such as hurricanes and storms with strong winds and high tides.

Sea turtle nesting season runs through October. Nesting periods for each species overlap; but generally, leatherbacks come first followed by loggerheads and then greens.

Only leatherbacks are considered "endangered" by the federal Endangered Species Act. Loggerheads and green turtles are listed as "threatened."

Whether endangered or threatened, sea turtles are protected by federal and state laws that forbid taking, possessing, disturbing, mutilating, destroying, selling and harassing all types of sea turtles, their nests and their eggs.

All three Treasure Coast counties have laws restricting light on beaches to help protect sea turtle hatchlings.

“A hatchling’s natural instinct is to head toward the brightest light on the beach, ” said Kendra Cope, Indian River County’s sea turtle coordinator. “Under natural conditions, that would be the moon and stars reflected on the water, so they crawl toward the ocean.”

Artificial lights illuminating a beach — whether from streets, inside and outside residences or parking lots — can disorient hatchlings and cause them to crawl away from the ocean where they’re more likely to be eaten by predators, run over by cars or die from overheating and exhaustion.

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