Recent hurricanes caused much devastation throughout the Florida Keys and the Caribbean, but they were no match for Florida’s nesting sea turtle population.

More than 70 percent of nests on eastern Treasure Coast beaches in mid-September were wiped out by storm surges from Hurricane Irma. But the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has estimated that green sea turtles laid a record 39,000 nests in the state this year.

This number is based on surveys of 27 Florida beaches that the FWC uses to follow nesting trends.

Other turtle species had strong years as well, with about 48,000 loggerhead and 200 leatherback nests.

“The success of our green sea turtles is a victory for conservation,” said FWC Chairman Brian Yablonski. “After years of many people and agencies working to conserve this species and its marine habitats, numbers of green sea turtles in our coastal waters and nesting on our beaches have increased substantially.”

Final 2017 nest counts will be available in early 2018 from the Statewide Nesting Beach Survey, an ongoing monitoring effort coordinated by the FWC’s Research Institute. This survey covers about 215 beaches over more than 800 miles of Florida coastline.

Nesting season lasts from March through October. Because Irma hit so close to the end of the season, many turtles were spared.

"By that time all our leatherback nests and about 80 percent of our loggerheads had already hatched,” Kendra Cope, the Indian River County sea turtle coordinator, told TC Palm.

On the other hand, only a quarter of green turtle nests had hatched before Irma. But, Cope said, 111 nests were laid in the county after the storm.

Cope said turtles have evolved to deal with hurricanes. They now lay multiple nests each year instead of counting on the survival of one single nest.

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