Take care; it's sea turtle nesting season

The sea turtle became Florida's official saltwater reptile this month, thanks to an effort by some middle school honor students in Tallahassee.

It didn't bump some other deserving creature off a list; it was an additional symbol to the long tally of animals and plants affiliated with the Sunshine State. Everybody's seen sea turtle specialty license plates, which feature a loggerhead hatchling, and also those sea turtle decals. Both of those fund the Imperiled Species Management section of the state.

Naming the sea turtle Mrs. Saltwater Reptile doesn't bring it any more money, but it does serve to raise awareness for these gentle, disappearing creatures.

Anyone who's ever seen a nest hatch and watched the silver dollar-sized babes fumble and crawl to the sea knows that skin-prickling experience.

Anyone who's come upon a nest - you recognize them usually by protective tape and stakes placed by volunteers or staff - up in the soft sand knows that feeling of wonderment. How amazing that 350-pound mamma made it so far on shore. How precarious an existence for the 100 eggs, which have to survive in their sandy den for two months, despite hungry ghost crabs, raccoons and wild hogs.

Anyone who's startled a juvenile sea turtle while paddling a kayak and seen the shell, skin and eyes so close beneath her boat knows that feeling of luck. So do anglers, anchored with lines out, who happen to hear a huge breath and see an adult loggerhead's face, shriveled like an old man's. For lack of other words, it's just plain cool.

Sea turtles have existed for more than 200 million years, but they're struggling now. All species of marine turtles are classified as either threatened or endangered. Southwest Floridians are privileged to share waterways with five species: loggerhead, Kemp's ridley, green, leatherback and hawksbill. Loggerheads are the most common, and those are the nests you're most likely to see on the beaches.

The nests are appearing more and more these days, with nesting season from May through October in these parts. Most adult loggerheads nest only every other year or every third year. After dark, the sea turtles crawl ashore to excavate nests and lay ping-pong ball sized eggs. Then they cover them and leave. When hatchlings emerge, they scramble to the Gulf. Only a small percentage survives to maturity.

This is where you come in.

If beach stuff - chairs, large toys - get in the path of the mamma turtle, she may decide to return to the Gulf and not lay her eggs. Stack your stuff each night; or be sure to take it with you.

If porch lights and other lights are visible from the beach, hatchlings' sea-finding ability can be disrupted. Confused, the hatchlings walk inland and die. Turn off your lights. Even your flashlights, if you're late night beach walkers.

If plastic bags, balloons, foam and other non-degradable litter are on our waterways and beaches, turtles may mistake them for food, eat the litter and die. Pick up not just your trash but other people's as well.

You get the idea.

Sharing waters and shores with sea turtles is part of summer here, though many Lee County residents don't know it or are unaware.

When my husband and I stumbled upon a just-laid (and already marked, thankfully) turtle nest on Cayo Costa recently, we gazed at the smooth, round mark in the sand in awe. We talked about last summer, when on vacation in South Carolina, we'd lucked upon two hatchlings during a ranger-guided night walk and watched the stragglers wander from nest to saltwater in darkness.

There I go again, getting that skinprickly feeling. It will take that 2-inch hatchling 20 to 40 years before it reaches its mature, 4-foot self, and it could live for 70 years. What a creature. What an opportunity for all of us to help.

- Betsy Clayton is a freelancer based on Pine Island and also is Lee County Parks & Recreation's waterways coordinator. Contact her at boatingbybetsy@yahoo.com.

Sea Turtles

>>What to report: sea turtle nests, turtle crawls (tracks), dead turtles or injured turtles

>>Online: www.turtletime.org or e-mail eve@turtletime.org

>>Phone: (239) 481-5566 or (888) 404-FWCC