When sea turtles nest on Cocoa Beach, how to find nests, what to do at a hatching, and the best beaches for turtle watching on the Space Coast.
It happens just after midnight. A loggerhead the size of a coffee table hauls herself out of the black Atlantic, past the tideline, past the seagrass, and up the dark beach. She has done this on this exact beach before. She was born here. And now she is returning to make the next generation. You might be 20 feet away and never know she's there.
Brevard County beaches host three sea turtle species. Loggerheads are by far the most common — Brevard has one of the highest loggerhead nesting densities in the Western Hemisphere. Green turtles are less common but their numbers are recovering strongly. Leatherbacks are rare and enormous, the largest reptile on Earth, and their nests on Brevard beaches are documented events. Altogether, Brevard County records 15,000-25,000 nests per season. Some years the numbers are extraordinary.
May marks the beginning. Loggerheads begin arriving in early May, often on the same beaches where they hatched decades ago. Peak nesting runs June through July. By August the season shifts to hatching — nests from early June begin opening and hatchlings emerge on August nights in enormous numbers. September and October are hatch season, with thousands of hatchlings making their run to the ocean on the right nights. By November the season is over and the beaches go quiet until May.
The nests are staked and marked by Sea Turtle Preservation Society volunteers who walk the beaches every morning at dawn. Marked nests are easy to spot — a ring of stakes with orange caution tape. Stay outside the tape. Never touch a nest. Never use white lights near the beach at night — sea turtles and hatchlings navigate by the natural light of the moon and stars reflecting on the water, and artificial light disorients them fatally. Red-light flashlights only after dark.
A nest incubates for 60 days. When the hatchlings are ready they pip their eggs simultaneously, dig upward together over 3-7 days, then emerge as a group when the sand surface cools — usually after 10pm. They orient toward the brightest horizon, normally the sea. In good conditions 100+ hatchlings pour from a single nest over 15-20 minutes. The dash to the water is fast and mostly successful if the beach is dark and undisturbed. Witnessing it is a legitimate top-10-Florida-experience.
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