Panama City Beach Turtle Watch - nest excavations

Panama City Beach Turtle Watch Nest Excavations
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Ever wonder who looks after the sea turtle nests on our local beaches? The organization responsible for protecting our sea turtle nests is Panama City Beach Turtle Watch. These extraordinary volunteers find, mark, protect, and excavate the sea turtle nests in our local area. Additionally they ensure as many hatchlings as possible make it into the sea upon hatching. They monitor a 17.5 mile stretch of beach from St. Andrews State Park to Camp Helen State Park.

You can witness their efforts by following them on Facebook where they live stream their nest excavations or visit the next nest excavation in person.

Sea Turtles begin laying eggs on our beaches late spring and continue through the summer. Volunteers or the public may notice and report a nest. PCB Turtle Watch is notified and then puts a fence around the nest to protect it while the eggs incubate in the warm sand for 50-60 days. At some point, the hatchlings come out of the nest, and if not disoriented by unnatural lighting, head for the sea.

Now this is where the PCB Turtle Watch magic happens. These amazing volunteers wait three days after a nest is reported as hatching. Then they excavate the nest, counting the number of eggs that are broken, remain whole, or hatched while searching for any turtles, dead or alive. Each nest usually has over one hundred eggs. This data is carefully collected for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commision who gave PCB Turtle Watch their permit to operate in 1991.

All of this data is available to see on Turtlewatch.org/our-turtles going back to 1991. There are three species of turtles that return to our beaches each year. These are the Loggerhead, the Leatherback, and the Greens. A female sea turtle can lay up to three clutches a year and tries to return to lay eggs on the beach that was imprinted on her as a hatchling. All of PCB Turtle Watch’s nesting data is displayed on this site using simple, easy to read graphs, showing the year to year progress of each species as well as photos of our turtles.

We can all help PCB Turtle Watch and the nesting turtles by leaving the beaches flat and empty after each visit. Also, if you see indications of new nests, please report to Panama City Beach Police at (850) 233-5000.