ANNA MARIA ISLAND – The number of sea turtle disorientations in the past week is cause for concern to Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring volunteers.
“We had eight adult disorientations this week,” Turtle Watch Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella wrote in a May 30 email. “Many of our disorientations were mother turtles that traveled long distances parallel to the water – likely towards a flashlight on the beach. Mother turtles have already spent a lot of energy crawling up the beach and laying their nests without needing to travel so far out of their way on their way back to the Gulf.”
She reminded people not to use lights of any kind on the beach. If lights must be used, she asked that they be red LED lights pointed directly at the ground…