A collective of workers and volunteers have been monitoring the shoreline of Daytona Beach, Fl., to watch for sea turtle eggs, counting nearly 3,100 nests so far this summer.
Mike Daley has been surveying sea turtles for 16 years and can identify turtle species by the tracks they leave behind. Finding the eggs can be "a real challenge," he told the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
"The energy they expend is amazing," Daley said. "It's mind-boggling what they can do."
Female turtles can dig a trench as long as 30 feet parallel to a sand dune and deposit eggs anywhere in it. Living up to 70 or 80 years, sea turtles are believed to return to the beaches where they were born to make their own nests.
Most of the nests along the 12 miles of beach that Daley regularly surveys are from loggerhead and green turtles along with a few leatherbacks and Kemp's ridley turtles.
Nest numbers seem to be down overall compared with last year, when a record 7,933 turtles dug nests on the shore's sand dunes. Daley has counted around 1,000 nests on the north half in Volusia.
Almost two decades ago, Volusia County implemented measures to protect the nests of two endangered turtle species that favor the area. The result of a lawsuit against the county, the changes included a ban on all cars within 9 miles of the beach.
Hotels and homes near the beachfront had to dim their lights or install new yellow lights outside to be more "turtle-friendly." Lights tend to disorient turtle hatchlings and can direct them into traffic instead of the ocean.
The county has already reported more than 140 lighting violations this year. At least five nests have been disoriented, Jennifer Winters, coastal habitat program manager for Volusia County, told the News-Journal.
"And we're not too far into our hatching season," Winters noted.
Some of the problem stems from interior lighting, such as when people staying in beachfront condos leave their blinds open.
"We're really pushing education," Winters told the Beach-Journal, adding that the county had been working with property owners "to get that message out to our visitors and guests."
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