HOW NESTS ARE FOUND

We check the beach every morning during the summer for the tracks of turtles that nested the previous night.  The surveys are performed on all-terrain vehicles by members of the Turtle Watch program.  The loggerhead tracks are about 3 ft wide, so they are easy to find.  Sometimes the turtle will not lay eggs when she crawls onto the beach.  This is called a ‘false’ crawl and happens about one-third of the time.  Tracks with a large area of disturbed sand indicate the presence of a nest.  Nests are sometimes found by tourists who exhibit creative ways of marking the location of the eggs.

The nest below was found by a child on Carillon Beach. 
He marked the eggs with a charcoal arrow and a protective perimeter of seaweed and sticks.

The photo below shows a false crawl, where a female turtle attempts to lay a clutch of eggs, digging a nest, or part thereof but then does not actually deposit her eggs.

See a turtle or tracks on Panama City Beach?
Call 888-404-3922 (24-hr hotline)