The 2021 Sea Turtle Nesting Season is Here
It’s that time of year again.
No, we’re not talking about Spring Break in South Florida, although that has arrived, too. Pretty soon Broward’s beaches will be filled with the “pitter-patter” of little flippers on the sand as it’s the 2021 Sea Turtle Nesting Season, which runs every year from March 1 – October 31.
Many people don’t realize that nearly 70% of the nation’s sea turtle nesting takes place on Florida’s beaches. And for approximately three decades, researchers and students at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) have been administering the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program (BCSTCP) to help mother turtles and their hatchlings.
“Every morning during nesting season, we head out on Broward’s beaches looking for new turtle nests and monitoring them until they hatch,” said Derek Burkholder, Ph.D., a research scientist at NSU’s Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, who is the director of the BCSTCP. “If you visit any of Broward’s beaches in the coming months – early in the morning – you’ll probably see us. We’re there every day, rain or shine, even through all the COVID-19 related shutdowns, because every year, the turtles show up to nest, no matter what.”