2013 MARINE TURTLE NESTING SUMMARY CANAVERAL NATIONAL SEASHORE

The 2013 marine turtle nesting season surpassed last year’s high and is the most successful season recorded at Canaveral National Seashore. A total of 7,933 nests were laid this season, including 3,758 Loggerhead, 4,152 Green, and 23 Leatherback. Nest densities were 98.12 per kilometer for the Loggerhead and 108.46 per kilometer for the Green – an overall nest density of 207.18. Loggerhead and Green nests exceeded the number of false crawls with ratios of 1:1.51 and 1:1.08, respectively. Due to the high number of nests and limited nest protection supplies, not all Green nests were screened to exclude predators. Prior to marking, 6.3% of the nests were partially or totally depredated and 1.8% of the nests were observed depredated after nests were marked. Overall, the depredation rate (partial and total) for all nests was 8.1%. Every twentieth Loggerhead and Green, and all Leatherback nests were marked for excavation. Hatching success rates of 66.1%, 57.7%, and 21.6%, were recorded for the indexed Loggerhead, Green, and Leatherback, respectively.