On Wednesday, June 1, 2022, the first sea turtle nest of the season was discovered in our area. Sea Turtle nesting season is from May 1 to October 31. During this time, sea turtles come on to our beaches to lay their eggs.

According to Coastal Resource Coordinator Jessica Valek, a loggerhead sea turtle came up onto a Destin beach on Tuesday night and laid her eggs.

Valek discussed the nesting process while standing near a roped off area constructed to help protect the nesting location.

“Only the female sea turtles are the ones to come out of the water at night,” she said. “They typically do this in the middle of the night. They’re going to come up onto the beach, find a good spot to lay their nest, dig a hole, deposit their eggs, bury them, and then they’re going to crawl back into that Gulf of Mexico…And they’re never going to come back again.”

Valek says that this is why it’s so important for beachgoers to protect our sea turtles and these nests.

• “Those mamas don’t come back to take care of their young ever again,” she added. “That’s the last that they’re going to see of them.”

According to Valek, over the next couple of months the eggs will continue to grow and develop before hatching from their eggs on a full moon night. From there, the hatchlings will emerge from the nest and will crawl their way out into the Gulf of Mexico, where they will likely go 50 miles off shore.

“What’s really cool is they’re going to go find this floating algae that we call Sargassum, and they’re going to spend the next few years of their lives in it,” she added. “What’s even cooler is that Sargassum, the stuff that you’re seeing washed up on our beaches right here, is incredibly important for our sea turtles.”

• For our beaches, not only does it help stabilize the beach but it helps provide nutrients to the beach. 

As for the sea turtles, Valek says they will spend their lives out in the Gulf of Mexico, and then in about 20-25 years, those same sea turtles that hatched from these beaches will come back to lay their own nests.

“We need to do what we can to help protect our beaches and help protect our nesting sea turtles and our hatching sea turtles,” she added. 

A few things we can all do to help protect our sea turtles includes:

• Leave No Trace
• Knock down sandcastles
• Fill in holes
• Remove chairs and umbrellas
• Don’t use bright white lights on the beach at night

“If you’re staying on a beachfront condo, we ask that you shut your lights off at night and close your blinds,” said Valek. “Come hatching time, which will be in a couple months for this nest here, sea turtle hatchlings are going to head to the brightest light source that they can possibly find when they emerged from that nest. If that light is a bright light somewhere inland, they’re going to head towards that instead of that full moon that’s out over the Gulf of Mexico.”

Want to learn more about sea turtles? Destin-Fort Walton Beach and the Gulfarium C.A.R.E. Center have partnered up to bring you C.A.R.E.ing for Turtles!

During this hour long program, guests will get the chance to learn about sea turtle conservation and nesting habits in Northwest Florida. They will also get a behind-the-scenes look into the Gulfarium C.A.R.E. Center and will get to meet and learn about the current patients. 

• Guests will also get to conduct a mock intake of an injured sea turtle, just like a scientist would!
• This program is for ages 8 and up.

Click to learn more on the event.