TURTLE NESTING SEASON 2009
Our 25th year of monitoring sea turtle nests on New Smyrna
Beach
As in years past we had a booth on Turtle Day at the Marine Science Center at Ponce Inlet.  Lots of
turtle activities for kids of all ages.  The day ended with the release of four juvenile green turtles that
had been rehabbed
And they are coming right
on time.  
May 1st and our first
Loggerhead nest!
SEASIDE FIESTA
WORLD OCEAN DAY
We decided to make our theme about keeping the oceans clean since sea turtles live
in the ocean and a lot of what is harming sea turtles is all the pollution and "junk" in
our oceans.  We had blue glass marbles in a jar for our guessing game this year.  We
sold guesses, t-shirts and Adopt-A-Nests.   It was a profitable and enjoyable evening
for those who attended.  If you weren't there you missed a good time.
Cathy T. & Cathy S. with our VSTS "intern"
Samantha
Marion & Cathy S
blue shirts, blue table
covers & blue marbles.
Marion & Sam
Well, we have completed another sea turtle nesting season.  We ended with
having 165 nests on our eleven miles of beach this year.  Down a lot from last
year but that happens.  We never did get a Green nest this year, but that too is
normal after having had two very high Green years in a row.  We had three
Leatherback nests, two of which were productive.  We  didn't find the eggs in
the third one, but Leatherback clutches are very difficult to locate sometimes.
Our grand finale was the Christmas parade on December 5th.  This is only the second
year that we have participated in the parade but our giant sea turtle seemed to make a
hit with the people along the parade route.  We heard shouts of "sea turtles rock", and
"Yeah, sea turtle people", as we drove along the parade route.  It made all our hard work
and the cold wind  blowing over us all worth while.  Cathy T. , Cathy S., and Marion
decorated the electric cart on loan from "The Wildside" and made the turtle puppets
wave to the folks who came out to see the parade.
The very cold Florida weather in January brought a new problem for the turtles.  When water
temperatures gets below 50F sea turtles can become cold stunned.  They float to the surface
and even have difficulty lifting their heads to breath.  Here are some pictures taken by a
visitor to New Smyrna Beach of cold stunned turtles at Canaveral National Seashore being
taken by truck to a turtle hospital to wait for the water to warm up.