Loggerhead Turtle Nesting Season
This year, loggerhead turtles nested on all 13 of Georgia's barrier islands , laying clutches of up to 120 eggs in the sand (AP Wire, 10/10/2005). The 2005 total of 1,215 nests is almost three times better than last year but is still only half of conservation targets.
Most loggerheads nest in Florida and Florida shrimp fisherman have been granted an extension to the period of time that they can operate without using turtle excluder devices, despite the fact that loggerhead turtles are an endangered species.
Turtle excluder devices are grids that fit across the opening of shrimp trawls to prevent turtles from entering the nets; turtles caught in shrimp nets can drown.
Elsewhere along the U.S. coast, turtles have suffered from the unusually fiece tropical storm season, the last nests at Hilton Head Island were swept out to sea by higher than normal tides caused by Tropical Storm Tammy and Hurricane Dennis buried many nests at Caspersen beach under an additional two feet of sand.
