While biologists say turtle nesting season is off to a healthy start this year on Collier County beaches, there are concerns about the impact of beach erosion. On Barefoot Beach, the county's northernmost stretch of shoreline, the water is only a few feet away from the 26 nests there, after heavy surf pounded the beach Wednesday.
"It's left, I don't know....six feet of beach," said beach visitor Alan Hudson. "And these waves now, they're powerful waves. When you go in, it knocks you over."
The nests on Barefoot Beach seem safe for the moment, but over on Keewaydin Island, biologist Dave Addison with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida is concerned about an estimated 20-plus nests that were washed over by the rough surf this week.
"We had a southwest wind that was piling water up on the beach, so the tide was higher than it usually is," Addison said. "More water got up on the beach and it flooded some portion of the nests."
He said he won't know if the nests survived the flooding until they're dug up to assess their condition, but he said newer nests don't need as much oxygen as older ones.
"Older nests - 45 or 50 days - the oxygen requirements of the embryos in there are higher and they're more apt to drown or die," Addison said.
He said a hurricane could impact the nests further, even if it doesn't make landfall in Southwest Florida.
"Hurricanes push a bow wake, and they cause higher than normal tides to begin with," Addison said. "So you don't have to have a hurricane come directly ashore to impact nests. You can have one pass a long way off."
