Turtle Watch Volunteers are a small and dedicated group covering 26 miles of beach. You can help the effort by removing your beach equipment and toys from the beach every evening.
   Turtles are sea creatures. Graceful and powerful in the sea, they are slow and vulnerable on land. A normal sea turtle land visit is a graceful loop emerging from the sea, with a nest body at the apex and an efficient loop back to the sea.
   Obstructions on the beach in a nesting turtle's path are dangerous obstacles. She cannot maneuver very well on land and loses precious energy reserves needed for nesting.
   A turtle cannot backup. If blocked or trapped she will need to be rescued.

HELP US HELP THEM
Be turtle friendly by removing all personal belongings from the beach every evening. Remove chairs, floats, toys. Fill in holes from sand castle building. Take down shade tents. Pull boats off the beach.

   These chairs and umbrella were left on the beach overnight. A nesting sea turtle has to navigate around obstacles to find her desired nesting site. Luckily, she did not become entangled in these traps this time.

   A beached catamaran at Gulf Trace became an injuring obstacle for a nesting sea turtle. This turtle lost fragments of her carapace (shell) as she crawled over the stainless steel wires. After laying her eggs (red arrow) she stumbled across the roller and back to the ocean.