When you set up your beach chair or spread your towel on the warm sands of St. Augustine Beach this summer, you likely will be relaxing very near an active sea turtle nest.  Members of three species– the loggerhead, green and leatherback–began digging nests along northeast Florida’s beaches in late April. Mother turtles typically crawl up past the high tide line at night and use their flippers to dig a cavity where they deposit scores of eggs, cover them up, and then return to the ocean. The nests look like messy mounds of sand, and you’ll see many roped off with ribbons and stakes by local volunteer turtle patrols to keep people from disturbing them.  All sea turtles are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.

After a couple of months or so, the eggs hatch, the babies dig their way out of the hole, and then use the moonlight to guide them into the sea. Most don’t make it to adulthood; they get picked off by predators such as seabirds and fish. But those who manage to hide in clumps of floating seaweed and other debris long enough will thrive in the deep ocean to forage and mate.  And those mature females will return to the beaches where they were born to lay their own nests.  Nesting season lasts all summer long and into the fall, peaking in late June-early July and tapering off in late October.

You might be lucky enough to spot a mother digging her nest or the babies scampering into the surf–usually at night, but sometimes in daylight.  Give them plenty of space and do not shine them with flashlights or interrupt what they are doing.  They have enough to do just trying to survive.

This summer may pose some additional challenges for the marine reptiles.

Many of the northeast Florida beaches where they dig their nests are undergoing large sand replacement projects to ease serious erosion caused by last year’s hurricanes.  The sand is trucked in from inland storage sites, deposited on the beaches, and spread around by heavy equipment.  Local turtle patrols set out before dawn to scout for newly-dug nests and may relocate those nests deemed to be in harm’s way.  No one can predict whether this will be a busy nesting season or a modest one and how many nests might be affected.

Another challenge comes from the much-ballyhooed, giant blob of floating algae called sargassum that extends from West Africa across the Atlantic and Caribbean to the Gulf of Mexico.  According to Cat Eastman, program manager at the Sea Turtle Hospital Whitney Lab in St. Augustine, sargassum is both a good and a bad thing for sea turtles.

“Sargassum is an amazing habitat for sea turtles,” Eastman said. “It’s a good thing.  It becomes a bad thing when it’s all up on the beach.”

Besides stinking up the beach with a rotten egg smell, large mats of the algae can block mother turtles from digging their nests and prevent hatchlings from making their way into the sea.  But so far that has not happened in northeast Florida.  Beaches are relatively clear of seaweed, and they are likely to stay that way for the rest of the summer.

A recent bulletin issued by scientists at the University of South Florida Optical Oceanography Lab says the overall seaweed quantity in the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt decreased by 15 percent from April to May– something that has never happened at this time of year since they started tracking the blob in 2011– and they can not explain it. The bulletin adds that sargassum in the Gulf is likely to decrease in June, which is good news for residents and visitors all along Florida’s east coast.

The third big challenge to sea turtles– mainly green turtles– comes from an infectious virus called fibropapilloma which causes cauliflower-like tumors to grow on their faces and bodies, impairing their mobility and ability to forage for food.  Sea Turtle Hospital Whitney Lab’s tanks are filled with sick patients– keeping veterinarians very busy administering medications, feeding them a healthful diet, and performing other rehabilitation.  Since its inception in 2015, the hospital has had great success nursing the animals back to health and then releasing them back into the wild.

If you would like to sponsor one of the hospital’s turtle patients and ensure its recovery, you can go to whitney.ufl.edu/conservation–sea-turtle-hospital/sponsor-a-turtle/.  The hospital plans to hold an open house June 16th from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. to celebrate World Sea Turtle Day.  Come meet the staff and cheer up the patients.