Sea Turtles

It's sea turtle nesting season. Don't forget to turn out your lights at night on the beach and stay away from mother sea turtles when they are nesting.

Eight green sea turtles stunned by the cold during a rare snowfall in North Florida have been released after being treated at Loggerhead Marinelife Center.

"With some cold weather a few weeks ago up in the Panhandle, they got over 1,000 turtles that stranded within just a few days," said the aquarium's Kelly McNally.

"Waves of green sea turtles" were being rescued after experiencing symptoms similar to frostbite from last week's winter storm.

Manatees and sea turtles are vulnerable to cold snaps like the Arctic blasts this month as cold air can drop the temperature of shallow water along Southwest Florida’s by 2 degrees every day.

Florida’s sea turtle nests survived an intense hurricane season. But climate change poses an uncertain future for the beloved beach icons.

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium said Friday that 271 nests were documented this year along a 21-mile stretch of beach patrolled by its teams, up from 227 last year.

Last year, sea turtle nests were lost when Hurricane Idalia whipped up Florida's Gulf Coast before making landfall in the Big Bend during the last week of August as a Category 4 storm. This year, Hurricane Debby disturbed sea turtle nests again along that coast before making landfall in the Big Bend during the first week of August as a Category 1.

This year's sea turtle nesting season is going great, with a leatherback on Sanibel and early nesting throughout the region. But few turtle lovers forget last season when early signs were record-breaking but the season's results were heart-breaking.

This year's sea turtle nesting season is going great, with a leatherback on Sanibel and early nesting throughout the region. But few turtle lovers forget last season when early signs were record-breaking but the season's results were heart-breaking.

So far this week, the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation has documented 554 loggerhead nests and 1 leatherback nest on Sanibel and Captiva Islands -- 422 nests on Sanibel and 133 nests on Captiva.

For 43 years, Mote Marine in Sarasota has been documenting sea turtle nests on the areas' beaches.