Sea turtle nesting drops in Pinellas

Joe Widlansky, left, and Meghan Kriesel, both of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Sea Turtle Patrol, put a plastic cage over a nest of sea turtles on Indian Rocks Beach Wednesday. The cage is to protect the turtles when they hatch and prevent them from wandering in the wrong direction. [Times photo by James Borchuck]

Pinellas County beaches are hosting less than half the number of sea turtle nests as a usual year, according to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, which monitors most Pinellas beaches for turtle tracks.

In past years, Pinellas has been home to nearly 200 nests. This season, it's less than 40. It's unclear whether the rest of the state is also experiencing a drop, because data is not collected until the end of the nesting season in November.

But it comes amid a larger, disturbing trend that the Fish and Wildlife Commission has documented: Loggerhead nesting in Florida has plummeted. In a 7-year period ending in 2005, turtle nests in Florida fell nearly 40 percent. Over a 17 year period, the total decline was more than 20 percent.

About 90 percent of loggerheads, a threatened species, nest either in Florida or in Oman, on the edge of the Arabian Peninsula.

"I've been here almost 11 years and we've never had it this low," said Tammy Langer, director of sea turtle nesting and rehabilitation at the aquarium.