Early turtle roundup upbeat

From an articleby Michelle Spitzer on FloridaToday.com:

Despite Tropical Storm Fay and bouts of strong wind, sea turtle nesting season ended Friday with encouraging results.

The number of nests in Brevard County surpassed expectations, said Llew Ehrhart, marine turtle biologist with Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute and University of Central Florida.

"Fay and the rougher conditions from (Hurricane) Kyle, which was way out in the Atlantic, did wash out some nests, but sea turtles have been dealing with that for millions of years," Ehrhart said. "We have lost a number of green turtles because a greater percentage of them were still incubating when the storms came."

Exactly how many nests were lost won't be available until February. However, preliminary numbers are optimistic.

Loggerhead turtles had the most nests this year with 9,502. That's a 50 percent increase from last year.

Green turtles produced the most surprising numbers. Although it was considered a low season for them, there were 2,773 nests. Previous low seasons have seen as few as 200 nests, Ehrhart said.

"The increase, I think, is in response to all of our conservation measures, such as the Endangered Species Act," he said. "We need to keep protecting our beaches. We're doing a good job of it."

Leatherback turtles only had 24 nests this year, but Ehrhart said that number is deceiving.

"We got double what we expected because this is a low season," he said. "Although the number is quite small, the trend is that they are going up and up and up."