- November 26, 2024
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As the sun began to rise over the ocean Tuesday morning, Lori Ottlein and the Flagler Turtle Patrol ATV made their way to the sand. The start time of the daily patrol is something that is precisely calculated: not too early, because there needs to be enough light to see any straggling hatchlings, but also before high tide takes over the majority of the sand and strands the ATV.
That morning, there were only a few items on the agenda for Ottlein, and the most important was to investigate the two nests that had reached the 45-day mark, which meant they needed to be flagged as being ready to hatch within the next 15 days. But as she drove down the beach, Ottlein, who is in her 15th year of being on the patrol, made several more stops at nests that hatched in the dark of night. Six nests, two in Beverly Beach and four in Flagler Beach, had signs of a first emergence. The first emergence could be spotted by a dip in the sand from the hatchlings moving around in the nest and a trail of baby turtle tracks, which resemble water droplets.
At each nest, Ottlein stopped to mark the nest with the date and place a stake on the outskirts of the nest markings to signify the center of where the turtle tracks were seen. This stake allows the patrol member who will clean/survey the nest three days later a better idea of where to dig.
She also stopped to record a few nests that had been washed over with the tide and to mark a newly laid loggerhead nest near 26th Street South.
This season, Flagler Beach has recorded 125 turtle nests; Beverly Beach recorded 26. All nests were loggerheads and greens. There were two leatherback nests in Flagler County, but not in Flagler Beach or Beverly Beach.
At one point during her early morning mission, the veteran turtle patroller caught a glimpse of something — invisible to an untrained eye — in a nest site, that wasn’t supposed to be there.
A ghost crab lurked in the small dip in the nest that had been caused by the turtle hatchlings breaking out of their shells and making their way to the surface. The crab could hear the hatchlings moving around and knew that it was only a matter of days before he would have the chance to snatch one up for a snack.
Ottlein, with a stake in hand, shooed the crab, the No. 1 one predator of turtle hatchings in Flagler County, away from the nest and checked to make sure the nest was not disturbed.
Patrolling the beach daily is just one aspect of the turtle patrol. The team also cleans and surveys all nests and educates the community. But Ottlein, who is known by members of the Flagler Beach community as “the turtle lady,” is also working in her free time to correct another problem the hatchlings are having making it to the water safely.
This summer, during a couple weeks of a dim moon, several hatchlings got disoriented and instead of following the light of the moon into the ocean, they followed the beam of a street light over the dunes and onto A1A. Live hatchlings were found in the early morning hours in the Finn’s parking lot, and dead hatchlings were also found on the sidewalk near Second Street North. This was also a problem last summer.
To try to combat the issue, Ottlein applied for a grant with the Sea Turtle Conservancy through Florida Power and Light to get shields put on the street lights so that their lights will point down on the sidewalk and not over the dunes. These shields are used in Beverly Beach and in Volusia County. She was denied for the grant.
The streetlights that Ottlein said are problem areas are at 22nd Street South, where the street light leans back and shines directly onto the beach, 16th Street North, 11th Street North and Veterans Park.
Ottlein plans to apply for the grant again this year, and since Flagler County now has documented problem areas, she hopes to receive funding for the shields.
Another lighting solution Ottlein hopes will correct the disorientation problem is having the street lights positioned on the east side of A1A, where there are no sidewalks and no one is walking, turned off.
A meeting to discuss that matter with FPL was scheduled for Tuesday and then canceled by FPL and rescheduled for Thursday. FPL canceled the meeting for a second time.
“I don’t think that anyone wants to aggressively do something bad,” Ottlein said about the meeting cancellations. “I just think they don’t want to do anything to correct it. They just think the problem will go away.”
Residents and visitors are asked to report all dead, injured or stranded turtles, birds and other marine life to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 1-888-404-3922 or the Turtle Patrol office at 366-4443.
