Sea turtles hatch in Collier County
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It's been almost 2 months since Tropical Storm Debby washed away hundreds of sea turtle nests along Florida's coast. Collier County says it's the worst damage they've seen in decade losing more than 700 nests. Video by fox4now.com
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NAPLES, Fla. - It's been almost 2 months since Tropical Storm Debby washed away hundreds of sea turtle nests along Florida's coast. Collier County says it's the worst damage they've seen in decade losing more than 700 nests.
Back in June, mother nature paid little attention to the caution signs posted around sea turtle nests in Collier County.
Pictures of Cape Romano just south of Marco island show us how high the water got during Tropical Storm Debby. Before the storm, nearly 855 nests existed in Collier County, but mother nature soaked the nests and destroyed them and left just under a hundred nests.
"We had a lot of nests on the beach when the storm came and it definitely did a good amount of damage," said Maura Kraus, an environmental specialist.
Maura Kraus with the county says no storm has done this much damage to turtle nests in nearly 30 year. She has been monitoring the nests for months now and noticed an amazing trend.
Since the storm, turtle have kept laying eggs as late as last week. These nests are now making up for the ones destroyed by the storm.
So far 163 nests have hatched and the future looks promising with more than 500 nests left to go.
"Last year, our total nests at the end of season that hatched was just less than 600 nests.
We still have a chance to catch up to last year's numbers," said Kraus.
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