Sea Turtle Monitoring Report, 1994

Sullivan, Katherine; Addison, David

The 1994 Sea Turtle Rescue Project recorded 168 nests and 206 false crawls on southern Key Island; 58 nests and 87 false crawls on northern Key Island; and 59 nests and 120 false crawls on Naples Beach. The greatest amount of nesting activity occurred during the month of June. The mean clutch size of these nests was 102 eggs, while the mean incubation period was 67. 1 days. Predation rates and damage by flooding was minimal this year, resulting in a mean hatching percentage of 75.7% and the introduction of 18,280 hatchlings into the Gulf of Mexico. A total of 66 individual nesting loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) were documented on southern Key Island. Thirty of these turtles laid multiple nests on the island, and 22 of them had nested there during previous years. Two green turtle (Chelonia mydas) nests were identified this season, one located on southern Key Island and the other on Naples Beach.