Gulf Coast Sea Turtles

As a follow up to my last post, I did some research to find out how sea turtle nests are faring on the Alabama coast as a result of Share the Beach's efforts.

2005: 37 Loggerhead and 1 possible Kemp's Ridley nests were identified, although four major storms that season proceeded to ruin many of them

2006: 45 Loggerhead and 1 Kemp's Ridley nests were identified, and only four nests were known to be destroyed by storms; an estimated 3,603 hatchlings reached the water safely

2007: 54 Loggerhead and 1 Kemp's Ridley nests were identified, and it was estimated that 3,465 hatchlings made it safely into the Gulf

2008: 78 Loggerhead and 1 Kemp's Ridley nests were identified, and an estimated 3,520 hatchlings made it into the surf

From 2003 - 2008, an estimated 17,390 hatchlings successfully entered the Gulf of Mexico.

So far this year, 66 nests have been located, but data haven't been entered for all nests yet, so the results are yet to be determined!

We amazingly witnessed the ONLY Kemp's Ridley nest of 2008 hatch - what luck!