VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – Hurricane Erin may not have made a direct hit on Volusia County, but its effects are causing serious problems for some of the coast’s smallest creatures — sea turtles.
Volusia Turtle Patrol says dozens of turtle nests have been lost so far and the team is now working to check on the remaining nests along the county’s coastline.
Out of about 400 nests, the patrol estimates that 40 to 50 have been lost because of the storm. Dozens more have been washed over with sand from the tide. The team says they still have to wait months to see if those nests will survive.
“We’re out here every morning driving the whole beach if we can get on, and looking for new turtle activity,” said Susie Amaro with Volusia Turtle Patrol.
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After a storm, the patrol switches gears to look for survivors. When the tide washes sand over where nests once were, they use technology to see if the eggs are still buried safely.
“The stakes were all knocked down and missing and the ribbons were all torn so we had to relocate the nest with our geolocator device we have,” Amaro explained.
Amaro said previous storms have already made nesting more difficult in Volusia.
“You can see some construction going on right there. They might come up in the night and say, ‘This is different, I don’t like this,’ because they do come back and nest in the general geographical location where they were hatched,” she said.
The crews also think ahead. Back in April, the county started a beach re-nourishment project. The turtle patrol moved nests to avoid construction, and that move alone likely saved about 200 nests from being washed away in this storm.
“It was determined early on before they even started nesting that this was going to be the plan for us to relocate, so we’d dig them up, bring them down to the Ponce Preserve down in Ponce Inlet which is a nice safe harbor,” Amaro said.
The patrol will continue monitoring the beaches daily, hoping to protect as many nests as possible during this challenging season.