Page 7 - Talk of Tequesta - December '20
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The Talk Of Tequesta, Page 7
loggerhead news
Loggerhead Marinelife Center’s Nesting Season Ranks
Third In Its Thirty Years Of Surveying Sea Turtles
Despite the world’s seismic shift, Loggerhead
Marinelife Center (LMC) cataloged another
successful nesting season on its 9.5-mile stretch
of beach, which spans from the northern Palm
Beach County line to the northern boundary of
John D. MacArthur Beach State Park. Between
Feb. 28 and Oct. 31, LMC documented 16,935
sea turtle nests. Altogether, the center’s research
department recorded 286 leatherback, 13,059
loggerhead and 3,590 green sea turtle nests. Nighttime nesting Nesting emergence
Dr. Justin Perrault, nighttime
Hatchling surveys
“This year marks the third-highest nest count since we first
began surveying sea turtle nests in the 1980s,” said LMC’s
Director of Research, Dr. Justin Perrault. “In general, we hope
that beachgoers abide by laws and regulations surrounding
nesting sea turtles. However, that is not always the case
given female sea turtles can be scared backed into the water
or impeded by beach debris, sandcastles, holes, flashlights
and human presence.”
According to LMC’s own data, loggerhead nesting success
on Juno Beach was 60 percent during the two-month beach
closures due to COVID-19 from mid-March to mid-May.
When beaches reopened, nesting success dropped to 48
percent. In other words, the data showed that there were a
smaller proportion of false crawls during closures, which is
when nesting mothers crawl onto the beach and return to the
water without laying eggs.
Despite nesting season being officially over on Oct. 31,
hatchlings are still anticipated to be observed on local beaches
in the next few months. It is advisable to avoid touching
unhatched eggs, properly dispose of debris so as to not leave
it behind on the beach and fill in holes in the sand, among
other best practices.
The nesting site that LMC monitors is one of the
most densely nested sea turtle beaches in the world.
In its several-decade timespan, LMC has developed a
comprehensive dataset to promote sea turtle and ocean
conservation and has recently produced collaborative
manuscripts regarding the impact of heat on hatchling
health, mercury concentration in tissues of marine life,
common viruses in green sea turtles and more!
Need a reason to celebrate? The center and its research
All Natural Pain Medicine department can give you 16,935. For more ways to support
sea turtle research, please consider donating to LMC’s
Ask Us!!! Annual Fund.
Loggerhead Marinelife Center
Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) is a nonprofit sea
turtle research, rehabilitation and educational institution that
promotes conservation of ocean ecosystems with a focus on
threatened and endangered sea turtles. The center features
an on-site hospital, research laboratory, educational exhibits
and aquariums, and also operates the Juno Beach Pier, which
• Compounded Medications hosts world-class angling and sightseeing. Situated on one
of the world’s most important sea turtle nesting beaches,
made for you and your pets! Loggerhead Marinelife Center is open daily and hosts
over 350,000 guests free-of-charge each year. The center’s
• Compression Hosiery conservation team works with 90 local and international
organizations across six continents to form partnerships
• Wheelchairs, Walkers, Canes and share conservation initiatives and best practices that
are core to its mission of ocean conservation. The center is
TequesTa Drugs anD expanding and has launched its Waves of Progress capital
expansion campaign, designed to accelerate and amplify
LMC’s conservation and education impact. When complete,
the facility will offer one of the world’s most advanced and
CompounDing unique experiences for guests and scientific partners. For
more information, visit www.marinelife.org or call (561)
627-8280.
Photos courtesy of Loggerhead Marinelife Center.
The Pharmacy With A Acquired through a Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission (FWC) permit.
Loggerhead News on page 8
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