Sea turtle nesting season begins in Fort Myers Beach

Sea turtle nesting season has officially begun, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wants to remind visitors about the fragility of the young reptiles.

According to the FWC, visitors are urged to stay at least 50 feet away from the nesting sites, as approaching them can cause the sea turtles to leave the beach before they complete the nesting process.

WINK News spoke with Chadd Chustz, an environmental project manager for the Town of Fort Myers Beach, about the efforts to make the nesting season optimal.

“We have a renourishment project that’s going to come and help elevate the beach so that improves sea turtles’ nesting habitat,” said Chustz. “It gives the mama turtles a deeper medium to dig into and bury the eggs after the renourishment was born. They come back with vegetation.”

The effort of Chustz and his companions began to pay off as several nesting spots were seen throughout the area.

“Two nights ago, a female came up and kind of tested out the beach and made some scrapes in the sand, looking for someplace to lay her eggs. You know, they abandon their digs,” said Chustz.

Roughly 10,000 tons of sand has been moved from Immokkalee to Fort Myers Beach as part of the town’s renourishment project.

• RELATED: Leatherback sea turtle nesting season begins in Sanibel

“We will be building that area up to about, I think it’s a 4.2 and tied into the existing berm 4.2 feet above mean high water,” said Chustz. “Whereas on this and the critical wildlife area where we’re at now, we have some natural water features that exist that we don’t want to fill in because it’s a valuable habitat.”

The nesting season is expected to run until October.