The sea turtle nesting beaches of Sanibel have been monitored since 1959, first led by sea turtle researcher Charles LeBuff and his organization Caretta Research, Inc. Sanibel was initially monitored for loggerhead (Caretta caretta) turtles and, more recently, a growing green turtle (Chelonia mydas) population.

The SCCF sea turtle team continues to analyze nest-monitoring and night-tagging datasets from Sanibel to identify trends in the reproductive metrics of our local nesting populations.

“These trends can be used to assess how Sanibel’s sea turtle population is responding to environmental and anthropogenic pressures,” said Sea Turtle Biologist Savannah Weber.

The metrics analyzed included nest counts and dates of first and last nesting emergences from 1980 to 2023, as well as hatch success from 1998 to 2023. Data from the 2024 nesting season is now being analyzed and will be added to the long-term dataset.

“The results found that nest counts for both species significantly increased over time,” she said.