MARCO ISLAND, Fla. — The City of Marco Island has moved to allow nighttime construction to continue following an incident where a potential sea turtle nest was harmed on Tigertail Lagoon at Sand Dollar Island.
On May 16 the City reported that a contractor working on a restoration project in the area drove an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) over a marked “potential” sea turtle nest. The nesting area that was affected by the ATV had been cordoned off by the Collier County sea turtle monitoring team and identified as a potential nest.
A damage assessment was done and the contractor developed an adaptive management plan for all future work.
A sea turtle specialist will continue on-site supervision during the remainder of the project.
There have been no other sea turtle nests damaged during construction, nor has there been an oil spill in the construction area.
False crawls are up this year with data showing an increase throughout all of Collier County compared to last year.
