Palm Beach County's beaches are some of the most densely nested in the United States. Sea turtles can be found in our waters year round, but in the spring and summer, large numbers of adults congregate off our beaches and along the reefs. Look at these graphs that show the high nesting of
loggerhead 
,
green , and
leatherback turtles, as compared to the rest of the east coast of the United States.
Nesting on our beaches begins as early as March. The early nesters are usually leatherbacks with the more numerous loggerheads arriving in significant numbers in May. Nesting continues into August and tapers off in early September. The female sea turtle crawls ashore at night to dig a nest, deposit her eggs, cover the nest and return to the water. While on the beach, sea turtles are timid and vulnerable and can be easily frightened away if disturbed. It takes between one to three hours for the female turtle to lay her approximately 110 ping pong ball-sized eggs.
A number of researchers, volunteer groups and agencies monitor sea turtle nesting in Palm Beach County. These surveys are conducted during nesting season by trained staff/volunteers permitted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Nests are identified to species by the turtle's tracks and size/shape of the nest.
ERM collects sea turtle nesting data from four beaches in Palm Beach County, including Tequesta, Jupiter Inlet Colony, Jupiter/Carlin, and Ocean Ridge. View current data (updated monthly) for these four beaches. Please note that the current data is the best available information, and that the data are subject to change.
ERM is responsible for fully monitoring the effects of shoreline protection projects (beach nourishment) on nesting and incubating sea turtles.
Nesting data for several years is also available for Juno Beach, a 5.5 mile section of beach monitored by the Marinelife Center of Juno Beach [External Link]. The Juno Beach area has some of the highest nesting densities of leatherback sea turtles in the United States. In fact, northern Palm Beach County has much higher nesting densities overall than south county. Other organizations/individuals within Palm Beach County that monitor the beach include: John D. MacArthur Beach State Park [External Link], Sea Turtle Conservation League of Singer Island [External Link], Barbara Kissas (Palm Beach Shores), DB Ecological Services (Palm Beach), John Fletemeyer (Delray), Bob Schonfeld (South Palm Beach), Chris Porter (Lake Worth Municipal Beach), Rob Caldwell (Lantana), Phil Stone (Manalapan), Jackie Lorne (Gulfstream), Jose Echeverria (Highland Beach) and Gumbo Limbo [External Link] (Boca Raton).
Coastal Resources