Tropical Storm Debby arrived on June
23 and appeared to be much like other
tropical storms, until it stuck around. The
high tides and winds associated with the
storm wreaked havoc on the beaches and
the timing could not have been worse for
sea turtle nests.
SCCF monitors sea turtle and shorebird
nesting on Sanibel and Captiva. This summer
the islands -- and the entire state of
Florida -- have seen higher than average
sea turtle nesting. Debby arrived just as the
nests laid early in the season were beginning
to hatch. At the time of the storm,
there were 207 nests on Sanibel; the storm
washed away 65 nests plus at least an additional
130 nests were washed over by high
tides or had excess sand deposited on top.
There were 86 nests on Captiva; 62 nests
were washed away and at least 15 more
were washed over by high tides or had
excess sand deposited on top. If water sits
over a sea turtle nest for too long at certain
critical points of development, the turtles
drown; if there is too much sand deposited
on top of a nest, the hatchlings cannot make
it out of the nest; if wet sand "concretes"
over the nest, the hatchlings also cannot
make it out. Seven of Sanibel's nests
appear to have made it through the storm
unscathed and five of Captiva's nests
appear to have remained dry.
The silver lining is that while Tropical
Storm Debby damaged many of the nests
on the beach at the time of the storm, the
storm occurred with two months left in the
nesting season. Sea turtles wasted no time,
returning to the beaches to nest as soon as
the waves and water receded. Since the
storm, an additional 42 nests have been
laid on Sanibel and seven nests on
Captiva, and nesting shows no signs of
slowing down any time soon. Some of the
nests washed over by the high tides have
even hatched since the storm. While the
success of these nests is below what we
would usually see, it is promising that
some of the hatchlings survived and continued
to develop despite the high tides.
The islands' shorebirds were also
impacted by the storm, but not as severely.
Two Snowy Plover nests and two
chicks were lost. Luckily, six chicks survived
the storm and are doing well. The
brood of Wilson's Plover chicks, already a
few weeks old, survived the storm and
will be flying any day now. Captiva's
Least Tern colony also appears to have
weathered the storm with few impacts.
