As Alabama beach tourism surges, officials warn about ‘spooking’ endangered sea turtles - AL.com

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A popular family tradition for Alabama beach visitors is to give kids a flashlight and head out for a nighttime catch-and-release hunt for tiny sand crabs.

But that innocent search, along with other beach activities, is startling endangered sea turtles. And with a surge of tourists returning to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, officials are wanting to inform visitors to be cognizant that their actions could be disrupting the turtle’s nesting schedules.

Alabama Coastal Foundation and Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism officials are concerned about the rise in so-called “false crawls,” in which sea turtle activity has been interrupted by human disturbances. Those incidences occur when a female turtle comes ashore to nest but gets spooked – usually by people brandishing bright flashlights – sending the turtle back into the water to release her eggs. The end result is fewer baby turtles.

“It’s certainly a problem,” said Sara Johnson, director of the “Share the Beach” program through the Coastal Foundation, which is responsible for monitoring the sea turtle nesting that occurs along Alabama’s beaches. “The number of crowds on the beach at night and the flashlights are a deterrent when (the female turtle) comes out of the water. She will head back because she won’t feel comfortable to nest.”

Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism officials are encouraging visitors to apply a red filter sticker on their flashlights to minimize the turtle’s alarm. The agency’s two welcome centers are offering free red stickers to place on the flash of a cell phone or on a flashlight.

According to spokeswoman Kay Maghan, “we strongly encourage people going on the beach at nigh tot get these stickers and do not use bright white lights to keep from spoking the turtles.”

Alabama’s Gulf beaches are nesting grounds for three types of threatened or endangered species of sea turtles: Loggerhead, Kemp’s ridley and green sea turtles. The turtles, according to information on the tourism agency’s website, can live up to 50 years, reach a weight of 500 pounds and measure four feet in length.

To lay eggs, sea turtles make an annual pilgrimage to the same beach where they hatched. Some of the nests can include more than 100 eggs.

From 2010 and 2020, an estimated 70,786 hatchlings have made it to the water from Alabama’s beaches, according to the Coastal Foundation.

The agency’s statistics also showed a 13.2% decline in the number of nests along Alabama’s beaches from 2019, and 57.9 fewer since the 2016, when the sugar-white sands were its most active with turtle nesting.

Last year’s storms had an impact. According to the Coastal Foundation, hurricanes and tropical storms resulted in the complete lost of 38 nests and the “inundation of many more.”

Johnson said the Coastal Foundation does not have any hard data to suggest sea turtle nesting has been directly disturbed by the rise of tourists. But she said volunteers have noticed fewer sea turtle nests within the denser areas of the beach, especially in Orange Beach where rows of new condos have been constructed in recent years.

“While the entire stretch of (Alabama Gulf Coast beach) may not have had more false crawls, the Orange Beach section had an increase over their previous years,” said Johnson. “Those areas tend to be denser with tourists.”

Federal law protects the sea turtle from being held or harassed, and fines can be stiff. Penalties for those who do vandalize a protected nest area can include jail time and fines that run as much $50,000.

But Johnson said it can be difficult to prosecute people who knowingly disturb the animal, or its nests.

“Unfortunately, there is not the usual proof (that a disturbance has occurred),” Johnson said. “It’s usually word of mouth. But should it be captured on video it’s turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

Vandalizing the nests in Gulf Shores can often involves police action. In late May 2020, Gulf Shores police and the Alabama Coastal Foundation partnered up to investigate vandalized nests off Gulf Shores’ West Beach Boulevard.

The Alabama Coastal Foundation was hoping, at the time, to utilize the incidences as an educational opportunity as visitors began returning to the beaches following the pandemic-related shutdowns last April.

Sea turtles begin forming their nests around May 1 and end around August 31 in Alabama. Nesting can also last into late October.

Volunteers monitor several areas of Alabama’s coastline each year and devote time to search for new nests. If they find one, the volunteers will mark them and protect the nests and hatchlings from natural and human-related dangers.

Johnson said that during nesting season, Share the Beach will have over 450 volunteers who are spread throughout Alabama’s 47 miles of beach coastline from the Flora-Bama to the west end of Dauphin Island.

Meanwhile, the organization is continuing to distribute informational brochures to condos and rental homes in hopes of informing visitors about the sensitivity of the turtles and their nesting.

“We are encouraging everyone to be respectful of wildlife in general,” said Johnson. “If you are in the general (vicinity of a turtle nest or a turtle), keep you distance, no matter what species you are looking at.”

Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism provides the following tips to be “sea turtle friendly”:

• Don’t use white flashlights (or flash photography) on the beach at night during nesting season. If you absolutely must have a light, use a turtle-friendly red LED flashlight, like a “Share the Beach flashlight” from Maglite, or get a red flashlight filter from the Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism Welcome Centers.
• Turn off outside patio lights and shield indoor lights from shining onto the beach at night. Hatchling sea turtles find their way to the Gulf waters by moonlight or starlight. Building lights along the shore may confuse the hatchlings, drawing them away from the water.
• Remember to bring all of your beach items and trash in every evening and fill in all holes so no turtles get trapped. City ordinances require that all items be removed from the beach no later than one hour after sunset.
• Do not disturb sea turtle tracks or nests.
• If you see a sea turtle: stay back (30 feet or more), stay low, and stay quiet. No flashlights or flash photography. Call the Share the Beach hotline at (866)SEA-TURTLE.

The Link Lonk


June 04, 2021 at 05:03AM
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As Alabama beach tourism surges, officials warn about ‘spooking’ endangered sea turtles - AL.com

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