Sea Turtle Nesting Season Underway On Georgia Coast
Throughout the nesting season, which runs through the end of summer, volunteers and Georgia Department of Natural Resources staff members will comb the state’s beaches looking for sea turtle nests. Mark Dodd, a state wildlife biologist, says it’s one of the best ways to get a good count of the species.
JEKYLL ISLAND AUTHORITY File Photo
Sea turtle nesting season is officially underway on the Georgia coast.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources found its first loggerhead sea turtle nest of the year this week on Cumberland Island.
Throughout the nesting season, which runs through the end of summer, volunteers and DNR staff will comb the state’s beaches looking for nests.
Mark Dodd, a state wildlife biologist, says it’s one of the best ways to get a good count of the species, which has a range all across the North Atlantic.
“One of our main ways that we tell the status of the population is just by nesting each year. It’s nice because they actually come to us on the beach, and we can locate and monitor the nests and count them pretty accurately,” he said.
Dodd says the number of sea turtle nests DNR discovers varies from year to year, but it is generally trending upward.
The agency found 2,155 nests in 2017. The year before, when it found 3,289 nests, was a record-breaker. The state started counting nests in 1989.
Dodd expects this year to be above average for loggerhead nests, but not record-breaking. He says a healthy loggerhead population means the entire coastal ecosystem is doing well.
“Sea turtles are important because they are a really good indicator species of the health of the coastal ecosystem because they, at some point in their life history, use the entire North Atlantic,” Dodd said.
Loggerheads have been federally listed as threatened since the late 1970s. The state classified them as endangered in 2006.
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