Ann’s Cottage Blog

Author Ann McAllister Clark - muses about books, authors and St. Augustine, Florida

Sea Turtle Nests

Sea Turtle Nests Destroyed by Hurricanes

 

This year many Sea Turtle nests on the Florida shorelines were destroyed by hurricane Alberto. These nesting turtle eggs are treasured by Floridian residents. The nests are immediately abandoned by the mothers but are vigorously protected by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.   The turtle nests are actually protected by law enforcement with high fines and possible time spent incarcerated. Don’t even think about messing with an incubating nest.

An interested person can sign up to join the groups who are trained to help the turtles when they break through their shells and begin their nocturnal journey toward the ocean. You will be taught how to do this without interrupting the arduous trip to the sea after dark. Once you have seen the tiny baby turtles, the size of a small child’s palm, scurrying and frantically flapping their flippers across the sand to the shore edge you will fall in love and you also will fiercely want to protect them.

On the nights of the turtle’s long wiggle to the waves and water, all lights in houses and hotels shining out over the sand are extinguished or the precious little travelers will mistake the lights for the moon and will head away from the sea toward the man-made lights.

But strong storms like Alberto wreak havoc on the nests. Mother nature in her massive strength can undermine what her Sea Turtles are trying to accomplish. Each nest averages 110 ping pong sized soft white eggs. [insert nest with eggs pic] Five nests of 218 just in Collier County were swept away and out to a soggy sinking in the sea and 26 nests of unhatched eggs were covered in water.

In 2017 half of the Sea Turtle nests were destroyed or swept away during hurricanes. Curious visiting friends and family must not add to the loss by disturbing the eggs, Sea Turtles or their nests during this ancient and magical time of wonder at the pull of the moon and the steady struggle of tiny members of nature to their deep and watery new home.

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Hurricane Matthew

Well…now I know what it is like to go through a hurricane. It is an adventure I hope I don’t have to go through again. The rain and wind howled and battered up against the house for almost 24 hours. Our little neighborhood of about 100 houses was told by Emergency Services to ‘hunker’ in place because we are 34 feet above sea level. So we didn’t leave. We were surrounded by other neighborhoods with mandatory evacuation orders.   As of a couple of hours ago we have electric – thank you Texas and all the states that sent their power companies to help out the more than 100,000 without power.
We hear from friends who did evacuate that they had to get all the way up into Georgia before they found one room left.

I know that the downtown district of Old St Augustine had at one time two feet of water in the entire area. The city is hundreds of years old with sewer systems patched and repaired over and over – the systems don’t drain well and the city is only about 5-6 feet above sea level. The water 8-9 foot surge from the ocean and the Intracoastal water way along with high tide caused water to flow all the way into town and out to the US1 highway – covering that important highway. We have five or six bridges in the area that were all closed so those that refused to leave had to stay.

Now, at noon we see that we are ok – nothing broken, a yard filled with debris but nothing we can’t handle. We can’t get into St. Aug because the crews want everyone to stay out of their way!

Thanks to all for your concern.

Another charming Street in St. Augustine, Florida

Another charming Street in St. Augustine, Florida

Charlotte Street

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Streets of St. Augustine

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