'Arriving early': PCB Turtle Watch has already tagged its first nest of the 2024 season
PANAMA CITY BEACH — It's too early to know for sure, but early signs indicate 2024 might be a good year for sea turtles nesting on the Beach.
According to Kennard Watson, director of the Panama City Beach Turtle Watch, members of his group found the first nest of the 2024 sea turtle nesting season on Monday, May 13. Though nesting season spans from the beginning on May until the end of October, this find comes a couple weeks earlier than usual for PCB.
"That's early for us," Watson said. "The season officially starts in this part of Florida on May 1, but typically we don't get a nest until the latter part of May. The (sea turtles) are arriving early this year, so that good to see.
"We do see there's a loose correlation between the date of first nesting and how many nests we get in a season, so there could be a little bit of positive news there."
Past reports note the group tagged 46 nests last season. This was nine more nests than it tagged during the 2022 season. However, last year still had 11 fewer nests than the group's record year in 2017.
Of the nests tagged last season, nine were laid by green sea turtles. The rest were laid by loggerhead seas turtles, the most common species in local waters. The first nest tagged this season also was laid by a loggerhead.
As a local nonprofit organization, Panama City Beach Turtle Watch identifies and protects sea turtle nests along about 18 miles of beaches in the PCB area from St. Andrews State Park to Camp Helen State Park.
For Watson, sea turtles, "being part of our natural heritage," are "one of the things that makes this area a nice place to live."
He said a main focus for his group this year is to continue its efforts in educating the public on the harm artificial lighting along the coast has on nesting sea turtles. This remains their biggest threat, as it is know to disorientate both nesting sea turtles and hatchlings.
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Watson encouraged beachgoers to be good stewards of the coast, remembering to keep it "clean, dark and flat."
"We're trying to continue our focus on lighting," he said. "Lighting pollution (is) the main threat to sea turtles on our beach. It's a particular concern on the west end of the Beach, which is redeveloping significantly. That's historically the darkest part of the area that we monitor, and the loss of dark beaches for sea turtles is a big concern for the future health of the population here."
For more information on the group, including live updates on tagged nests, visit turtlewatch.org.
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: PCB Turtle Watch has already tagged its first nest of the 2024 season
