A late peak in nesting activity this season has left us much closer to last year's record numbers than we thought possible at the midpoint. With 3 weeks left, we have 71 turtles and 262 nests (last year we ended with 77 turtles and 324 nests). Neophytes however are still remarkably low at 14. Nesting activity nearing the end of October has slowed slightly; we now see about one nest per night.
Nest hatches on the other hand are starting to peak at 2 to 3 hatches a night. Even so, we miss most of them as it can take just 5 minutes for over 100 hatchlings to make it to the sea. We are left with only their tiny tracks printed along the sand as evidence.
Let's say all of these 262 nests laid so far this season hatch with an average of 145 eggs per nest and a hatch success of 80%... That gives us over 30,000 hatchlings entering Pasture Bay so far this season! That's a lot of hatchlings for a 600 meter beach!
