On the heels of a movement to protect Pacific loggerhead sea turtles, news comes from Florida that the number of turtle nests went down in 2007. Loggerhead sea turtles are already listed as “threatened” by the federal Endangered Species Act.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission surveyed nineteen different beaches were loggerhead turtles nest. Scientists reported more than twenty-eight thousand turtle nests. This seems like a good number until you compare it to the 2006 survey, which counted nearly fifty thousand turtle nests. In 2007, there were twenty-two thousand fewer loggerhead nests on Florida beaches — possibly the lowest nesting year on record.
Looking back over the years, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reports that turtle nesting numbers have declined in four of the last seven years. This isn’t very good news for the loggerheads.
Experts aren’t sure what is causing the population drop, but they do have a few ideas:
- Today’s nesting females may have been affected by a disease or an algae bloom some thirty years ago.
- There may be a biological cycle that the researchers are aware of, and these nesting numbers may be a normal part of the cycle. Scientists have only been tracking nesting numbers for Florida turtles for thirty years or so.
- A drop in nesting numbers may not correlate to a drop in turtle population at all.
Other turtle populations were doing better in Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission surveys. Scientists counted nearly 9500 green turtle nests — a record high that smashed the count of 7180 in 2005. Leatherback turtles checked in with 517 nests — another record high. The previous high was 367 leatherback nests in 2001.
If you are interested in helping to protect loggerhead turtles, try contacting your elected officials to encourage their support for environmental protection for endangered animals. If you live in an area that supports loggerhead turtles, you can volunteer with a local conservation organization.