How to Help - Sea Turtle Conservation League of Singer Island

Sea Turtles in Palm Beach County

Every year from March-October, the sandy beaches of Palm Beach County become essential nesting grounds for three different species of sea turtles, including the loggerhead, green and leatherback.

The female sea turtle comes ashore at night to construct her nest on a dry part of the beach. It is here that she will deposit 80-120 eggs, which will incubate about 2 months buried in the sand.

After emerging from the nest, hatchlings crawl down the beach to the water where they must swim for many hours to reach rafts of seaweed in the open sea.

Roughly one quarter of all sea turtle nestings in Florida occur in Palm Beach County, making our beaches extremely important to the survival of these threatened and endangered species.

Light is Their Downfall!

Sea Turtles do not see well on land and light only obstructs their vision. Light is one of the major reasons that cause a mother not to nest.
Light attracts hatchlings by the hundreds and prevents them from crawling down the beach to the water.

How You Can Help Sea Turtles

Sea Turtles nest at night. Closing your curtains at 9:00pm insures that our turtles have a quiet place to nest and their hatchlings have a chance to start on a 25-year journey to return to our beach to replenish the species.
Make sure chairs, toys and boats are off the beach from sunset to 2 hours after sunrise.
Replace wooden cabanas with lightweight furniture that is easier to move on and off the beach.
At night, beach obstructions should be placed as close as possible to the dune in an area that does not impact native vegetation.
It is against federal and state laws to touch or disturb nesting sea turtles, their nests, their eggs, or their hatchlings.

Sea Turtles lack the ability to easily maneuver around objects or crawl backwards, and although they have good vision underwater, they do not see well on land. Therefore, furniture and equipment left on the beach overnight may create an obstacle for nesting sea turtles. When a sea turtle comes in contact with an obstruction, she can become trapped or entangled and is more like to return to the sea without nesting.

Support the Turtles

Thank you for your continued support of the Sea Turtle Conservation League of Singer Island. We have been able to make a huge difference in our community for years, but could not do it without you!!!

Loggerheads

The reddish-brown loggerhead turtle is the most common sea turtle found in the southeastern United States. 90% of the estimated 14,000 female loggerheads can be encountered in Florida. These turtles, named for their disproportionately large heads, have powerful jaw muscles which enable them to feed on a variety of heavy shelled mollusks and crustaceans in addition to jellyfish. Loggerhead turtles range in size from 33-40 inches shell length and 150-400 pounds. They reach maturity between 20-30 years of age and will be able to reproduce over a period of approximately 30 years. Loggerheads nest between late April and October prior to swimming off to feeding grounds throughout the Caribbean, northeast along the U.S. coast to New Jersey, southeast through the Florida Keys, and west to the Gulf of Mexico.

Greens

Green turtles, named for the greenish color of their body fat, are medium to large reptiles. Their shells are distinguished by a mottled or radiating pattern of markings. Green turtles differ from other members of the sea turtle family because of the single pair of scales on the front of their smallish heads. Greens can be between 36-43 inches long, weighing between 200 and 300 pounds. Green turtle nesting shows a clear pattern of alternating high and low years. The years 1999 and 2000 give a good indication of this high/low pattern with 479 reported green turtle nests in 1999 and 8,404 green turtle nests reported in Florida in 2000, this according to data collected by the Florida Marine Research Institute. Greens are primarily a tropical herbivorous species most at home in areas of shallow, sandy flats abundant with seagrasses. Their low protein vegetarian diet causes green turtles to grow and sexually mature slowly. Greens will reach maturity anywhere between 15-50 years of age.

Leatherbacks

Leatherback turtles are highly specialized and the largest and deepest diving of the sea turtle family. Individual leatherbacks range in length between 4 and 8 feet, and can weigh anywhere between 700-2,000 pounds. Unlike other species of sea turtle, leatherbacks are scaleless, covered instead with a firm, rubbery skin lined with 7 longitudinal ridges. Leatherbacks may travel up to 3100 miles from their nesting beaches which are found on tropical and subtropical shores. They will visit Florida’s beaches to nest between April and August each year. In 2000, 453 nests were counted in Florida and 35% of those were in Palm Beach County.