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Last sea turtle nest excavated

Just before the sun had completely risen over Gasparilla Island, Norma Jean Zvosec peered down into an 18-inch hole she had dug on the beach near 35th Street. It was Friday, Oct. 9, and it was the last remaining sea turtle nest on Gasparilla Island to be excavated for the season.

Reaching her arm deep into the hole, she extracted shell after shell, examining each one to determine its status. While 46 had hatched, 54 never properly fertilized. The 100 shells were lined up in groups of 10 and written down by volunteer Maureen McConnell. It was a ritual that had been performed 290 times on Gasparilla Island up until that date.

The next morning, more than 25 volunteers woke up wondering what to do with their time in the mornings until May 1, 2010. Zvosec said she and McConnell will be helping out at Bit of Hope Ranch in Englewood, a rescue ranch for horses.

Zvosec, known by her fellow sea turtle patrollers as “turtling dynamo,” has patrolled Boca Grande beaches religiously along with those 25 others, at first just watching the sand for the familiar indentations that marked the first nests, then for the telltale signs that hatchlings had emerged.

Grace Harvey, the island’s sea turtle permit holder, said it was a pretty good year as far as nests go.

“We had a good season as far as having the finest, dedicated volunteers we’ve ever had,” she said. “We had lots of new people join us, and everyone was loyal and out there every day. When we had hatchings they would come back at night, all days of the week.”

Harvey said this year also yielded more cooperation with people staying on the beach in keeping with the “lights out” regulations, and keeping furniture off the beach.

“The nest count was up from last year, but we still haven’t matched what happened in the 1990s when we had phenomenal numbers,” she said. “In all, it’s been a great year, though. We hope next year will be even better.”

Total nest numbers for the 2009 Gasparilla Island sea turtle nesting season are: Zone 1, 10; Zone 2, 11; Zone 3, 32; Zone 4, 47; Zone 5, 60; Zone 6, 45; Zone 7, 23; Zone 8, 23; Zone 9; 21; Zone 10, 9. Zones 1 through 3 are in Charlotte County, the rest are in Lee County.

There were seven green turtle nests, which are much more rare than the loggerheads that frequent Boca beaches, and 153 false crawls. False crawls occur when a sea turtle comes ashore to nest, but instead turns around and goes back to the Gulf.

Three strandings occurred in the waters surrounding Boca Grande, and Penelope, the sea turtle that was found sick and floating in the water near the range light this summer, died two months after being transported to the St. Petersburg Aquarium.