AsHurricane Irmaraged through Florida it induce a great deal of destruction . Now it seems the storm embroil by thousands of nests of endangered ocean turtles , drastically limiting their breed success .
Ironically , 2017 had been a great year for nest sea turtles , with green turtleneck set a record 15,744 nest in Florida ’s Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge . But unfortunately , the wrath of Hurricane Irma swept sand away , exposing carefully lay to rest eggs and remove some nests altogether , grant toresearchfrom the University of Central Florida ’s ( UCF)Marine Turtle Research Group .
about 8,830 immature polo-neck nest in the resort were take by the tempest , that ’s more than one-half ( 56 percent ) . An estimated 24 percent of loggerhead nests were also lost .
Green turtles lay their nest after in the year than other mintage , so they were most hard touched . Meanwhile , the majority of the 9,690 loggerhead nests laid in the resort this year had already hatched before Hurricane Irma hit . More than 2,000 loggerhead nests were still ruined , though .
fortuitously , all the nests of another species , the Dermochelys coriacea turtle , had hatched before the storm get in .
Both loggerhead and green turtle are list as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act , and the majority of their nests in the US are witness in Florida . The area in the wildlife refuge monitored during the research is dwelling to roughly a third of all the unripened turtle nest in the Florida , so Hurricane Irma really took its price .
“ Last twelvemonth with Hurricane Matthew , we lucked out because it was a grim green turtle twelvemonth , ” said Kate Mansfield , director of the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group , in astatement . “ This twelvemonth was an extraordinarily exciting year for light-green turtle nesting , breaking all previous records within the refuge and continue the preservation achiever story for the coinage . alas , we had another heavy hurricane this year , highlighting the need for continued conservation efforts in the area . ”
However , there has been a little good news following the violent storm . Adult gullible and loggerhead turtles have managed to come ashore and create Modern nest since the hurricane . Within the monitored reserve , 466 raw green turtle nest and eight unexampled loggerhead nest have been laid . Meanwhile , on other beach monitored by the UCF , 72 new green polo-neck nest and three loggerhead nests have been find .
Yet , these new nest still face other danger .
“ Green turtles are still nesting , but recent extremely gamey tides have probably pass over out many of those new nest , too,”saidErin Seney , an adjunct research scientist with the UCF group . “ The honest news show is that the nesting habits of ocean turtles do protect them from large - scale nest loss and make them more bouncy to this variety of event . They lay multiple nest per nesting time of year , just about every other year for 30 days or more . ”
