JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — Sea turtle nesting season has finally arrived and Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol is starting to watch over three different species of sea turtles on the First Coast.
“We look for tracks in the morning. We know what the tracks look like and the tracks lead us to the nest. We mark the nest. We monitor the nest throughout its nesting time period," said Kevin Brown, volunteer with Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol.
With it being the official day of nesting season for sea turtles, the Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol started their search but didn't find any nest Saturday.
Brown says Friday morning Mickler's beach found the nest of a loggerhead sea turtle.
“The idea behind any monitoring of marine life is to tell you how the condition of the ecosystem. So if we still get turtles here everything’s fine," said Brown.
Brown says with sea turtles still nesting on the beaches it shows that our beaches, dunes, and our water is good.
That’s why Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol is reminding people to do their part in keeping the beaches clean, dark, and flat.
“Come to the beach, enjoy the beach, have fun on the beach. When you leave it clean, leave it flat, fill in all the holes and at night lights off," said Brown.
Brown says lights can disorientate a nesting female and hatchlings and holes and big piles of sand are very detrimental to the nesting female and the emergence hatchlings.
“When you come to the beach pick up your trash leave everything like you found it. We need a flat smooth beach and no lights and that’s really the effort.”