Tips to Remember about Turtle Nesting

We all get pretty excited when we spot a sea turtle, right? We're at the beach at night and we want to snap a flash photo with a cell phone. We don't realize that any light on the beach at night poses a threat to these endangered and threatened animals! A nesting female may become frightened or disoriented by lights or a flash photo and return to the ocean without laying eggs. Lights on the beach at night also interfere with adult or hatchling sea turtles trying to find the ocean after nesting or hatching.

 

Let's help conserve sea turtles by remembering some simple tips:

🐢Fill in holes in the sand at the end of a beach day
so nesting sea turtles and hatchlings don't fall in and get
stuck there at night.

🐢Remove chairs, canopies, boats and other items from
the beach at night, because they block the movement of
turtles and hatchlings.

🐢Avoid using lights at night on the beach. If you need
light, use a red LED flashlight, adjust cell phone screens
to dark mode and don't take flash photos.

Hatchlings heading for the ocean.

 🐢A couple things to remember. It's illegal to harm, harass or take sea turtles, their eggs and hatchlings, including getting too close to a nesting female. Remain at a distance from nesting sea turtles and hatchlings.

FYI, the turtle nesting season is over the end of October.

The marine turtle patrol protects turtle nests with these structures.

 

Tips on what to do on the beach at night if you come across a sea turtle at my blog https://t.co/Ga3yyEvk7V pic.twitter.com/pd6zPLdVrR

— Patrician Price (@patrician_price) October 1, 2017🐢