Walk the Gulf beach at the south end of Gasparilla Island this week and it looks like the season is over. The yellow stakes, signs and tape that lined the sand all summer have been pulled. The Boca Grande Sea Turtle Association has already moved its supply trailer and UTV off the island for winter storage. Most mornings now, one volunteer drives to a beach access, walks out to check a nest, records what they find, and drives on to the next access.
One of the last nests on that route is a green turtle nest laid on the south end after nesting had otherwise stopped. In her October column for the Boca Beacon, BGSTA's Arlene Hall wrote that it could hatch anywhere from late October to mid-November. The official season runs May 1 through October 31, but hatchlings may still be coming out after that date. Those hatchlings face a different risk than the summer nests did. Surf decided which nests survived in July. Lights on the landward side of a house decide what happens now.
A Season That Was Mostly Over by July
BGSTA covers seven zones, from the island's north end down to the north boundary of Gasparilla Island State Park near the main lighthouse. Its patrollers count every crawl, which means every time a turtle comes ashore. A crawl is either a nest or a false crawl, where the turtle turns back to the water without digging a nest. Hall's August 6 report in the Boca Beacon broke the season down by month:
| Month (2026) | Total crawls | Nests |
|---|---|---|
| May | 455 | 162 |
| June | 1,146 | 307 |
| July | 364 | 110 |
| August, through Aug. 5 | 17 | 5 |
June produced nearly as many nests as May and July combined. The busiest single day was June 21, when patrollers logged 83 new crawls: 15 nests and 68 false crawls. By early August, new crawls had almost stopped. That made the second half of the season mostly about waiting for nests to hatch.
The early numbers had looked a little slow. As of May 31, BGSTA had recorded 142 loggerhead nests, compared with 164 at the same point in 2025. Three days into June, the count had already reached 171. By August 5, the island had 584 nests: 574 loggerhead and 10 green. On that date in 2025, the count was 537 loggerhead and 25 green nests, so 2026 was slightly ahead overall. Hall noted that green turtle nesting varies a lot from year to year, so the lower green count was not a concern.
What the July Surf Took, and What Survived It
The first nest hatched on June 26. A month later, the tropical depression that became Tropical Storm Bertha moved through offshore. It sent heavy surf over the beach from July 20 to 22. In her storm report for the Boca Beacon, Hall described a nest near downtown that washed away completely. She also described north-end nests left sitting in tidal pools, where eggs can fail if they stay underwater long enough.
Once BGSTA finished counting, the damage was clear. The surf destroyed 41 nests. Nearly 200 others were washed over or sat in standing water for a while. Many of those overwashed nests went on to hatch. By August 5, 294 nests had finished incubating, most of them with hatchlings reaching the Gulf. Hall also reported fewer nests lost to mammal predators than in 2025.
Patrollers also dig up and inventory some nests after they hatch, following instructions from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. By August 5, they had inventoried 146 nests, including nests "adopted" by supporters through BGSTA's 2026 Adopt-a-Nest fundraiser. The state uses those inventories to measure how successful the island's nests were. All of BGSTA's work this year was done under FWC Marine Turtle Permits #26-123 and #26-173.
The Green Nest That Arrived After Everyone Thought Nesting Was Done
By BGSTA's September 3 report, the count had reached 605 nests, with 90 still incubating. The count can still go up late in the season. Sometimes a crawl logged as false turns out to have been a nest when hatchlings come out of it.
That column said it had been several weeks since any new crawls. The next day, a green turtle came ashore on the south end and laid a nest. By Hall's October 8 report, BGSTA had documented 611 nests for the season, and only three were left on the beach. Two were expected to finish by mid-October. The late green nest extended the patrol calendar by at least several weeks. Hall also wrote that a late false crawl had turned out to be a nest a couple of times in recent weeks. That is less likely this late in the year, but it is still possible.
The south end has a lot of life close to the sand. The Boca Bay Pass Club, for example, sits on the island's southern tip about 100 feet from the Gulf. If the green nest hatches in early November, the hatchlings will come out into the shorter days of the new season, when evening lights come on earlier.
Why a Light a Block Away Still Matters
The most useful detail in the October column is about a rescue. Green hatchlings came out of their nest and crawled away from the Gulf, toward landscape lights on the street side of a house. They fell into a pool nearby and got caught in the pool skimmer. Someone found them in time, and volunteers drove them to Mote Marine for evaluation and later release.
The lights that drew those hatchlings were on the side of the house away from the beach. Hall writes that lighting in and around homes, in landscaping or in pools, can confuse hatchlings even from a block away if it is visible from the beach. Hatchlings head toward the brightest horizon. So a nest on the beach can be affected by houses that are not on the beach at all.
BGSTA has asked all season for a beach that is Clean, Flat and Dark. The Boca Beacon printed what each part means:
- Clean. Take your trash and beach equipment with you. Anything left on the sand is an obstacle for a hatchling.
- Flat. Fill in holes and knock down sand structures before you leave.
- Dark. Turn off indoor and outdoor lights that can be seen from the beach.
In October, Hall asked everyone to keep following these practices until the last nests are done. The July storm report also asked for help if you find washed-up nest stakes. Do not put them back up on the beach. Lay them near the dunes, where patrollers can collect them.
Where the Count Goes From Here
BGSTA's 611 is the count from its seven zones as of October 8. The state park beach beyond the lighthouse is counted separately. In the Beacon's October 21 weekly report, the park's Gasparilla figures were 32 loggerhead nests and 489 hatchlings. Because those are separate counts, the two figures should not be added together.
BGSTA is a volunteer nonprofit. It has held an FWC marine turtle permit since 2013 and does daily nesting surveys, nest monitoring and community education. In September, while the stakes were still out, volunteers Anthony Peffley and Joe Foster also cleared trash and debris from the north-end beach. When the last nests are finished, Hall wrote, their data will be added to the rest of the season's records and sent to FWC scientists. Until then, the volunteer checking that south-end green nest each morning is looking for signs of a hatch, and the hatchlings will need the beach to stay dark when they come out.
At Zeke Sieglaff and the Steffan•Sieglaff Team, we follow the island's calendar closely, including the turtle season along the south end. If you own a Gulf-side home here and are thinking about a sale, we would be glad to talk through how its setting and seasons factor into its value, and to answer the question we hear most often: how much is your home worth?
