National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation

National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation The National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation supports sea turtle research in the US and abroad.
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Since 1987, the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation has worked tirelessly to provide educational programming, promote public awareness of Florida’s marine ecosystems, and support sea turtle research both in United States and abroad. The Foundation is dedicated to assisting those who devote endless hours in the battle to understand and preserve the marine environment, and invites you to learn more about this important work.

Sea turtle hatchlings are born with a hardwired instinct to crawl toward the brightest low horizon — under natural condi...
09/04/2026

Sea turtle hatchlings are born with a hardwired instinct to crawl toward the brightest low horizon — under natural conditions, that's the ocean reflecting moonlight and starlight. Artificial lights on or near the beach outshine that natural cue and override the instinct. Hatchlings become disoriented and crawl inland toward the light source instead of seaward. Turn off or shield exterior lights facing the beach during nesting season. Many coastal jurisdictions now enforce lighting ordinances specifically to protect sea turtles.

Learn more ➡ https://savetheseaturtle.org/

09/04/2026

Hatchlings typically emerge at night to avoid predators and use moonlight to navigate toward the ocean. Artificial lighting can disorient them, so beachgoers are urged to keep lights low and avoid disturbing nests.

Sea turtle hatchlings have a caruncle - a small, pointed, keratinous bump on the tip of the snout - essentially a tiny c...
09/03/2026

Sea turtle hatchlings have a caruncle - a small, pointed, keratinous bump on the tip of the snout - essentially a tiny chisel. The hatchling presses it against the inner shell surface and works its way through. Once the shell is breached and the hatchling is free, the caruncle is no longer needed and falls off on its own. The process of breaking through the shell for their first breath of air, switching from the chorioallantoic membrane to pulmonary respiration, is called pipping.

Learn more ➡ https://savetheseaturtle.org/

09/03/2026

Sea turtles typically hatch synchronously, with the entire clutch emerging from their eggs within a narrow 24-to-48-hour window. This synchronized hatching is driven by social facilitation, where embryos communicate through vibrations and acoustic signals to coordinate their development and ensure they break their shells simultaneously.

Sea turtles are a keystone species, meaning their ecological impact is disproportionately large relative to their abunda...
09/02/2026

Sea turtles are a keystone species, meaning their ecological impact is disproportionately large relative to their abundance, and removing them triggers cascading failures across marine food webs. Without sea turtles, seagrass beds could overgrow and collapse, jellyfish could explode in number, coral reefs could be smothered by sponges, and coastal dunes would lose a critical nutrient source — fundamentally altering entire marine ecosystems.

Learn more ➡ https://savetheseaturtle.org/

Sea turtle nest excavations allow researchers to count empty eggshells and unhatched eggs, providing critical data on ha...
09/01/2026

Sea turtle nest excavations allow researchers to count empty eggshells and unhatched eggs, providing critical data on hatch and emergence success rates for conservation databases. Biologists also document dead hatchlings to analyze causes of failure, such as predation, disease, or developmental mutations (e.g., missing limbs or leucism). If live hatchlings are discovered, they must be allowed to make the full journey from nest to sea so imprinting can occur.

Learn more ➡ https://savetheseaturtle.org/

09/01/2026

Sea turtle hatchlings are occasionally found alive during nest excavations, which are typically conducted 3 to 5 days after an emergence event. This delay allows stragglers a final opportunity to emerge independently before biologists inventory the nest. If live hatchlings are discovered, they are often released into the ocean, sometimes requiring assistance if they are stuck or unable to push through the sand. As hatchlings emerge and crawl to the ocean, they imprint on the unique geomagnetic signature of their natal beach.

Plastic pollution is one of the leading threats to all seven sea turtle species, affecting them at every life stage. 5–1...
08/31/2026

Plastic pollution is one of the leading threats to all seven sea turtle species, affecting them at every life stage. 5–13 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean annually. The problem is compounded by plastic's persistence — even if all plastic pollution stopped today, the existing debris would continue affecting turtles for decades to centuries.

Learn how you can help ➡ https://savetheseaturtle.org/

08/31/2026

Florida hosts approximately 90 percent of the nests for the Northwest Atlantic Ocean’s loggerhead nesting aggregation, which is considered the largest in the world, 2025 was a strong nesting year, and 2026 is on pace to break records — loggerheads already had 94,667 nests by June 30, the highest June total in the past five years.

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Fort Lauderdale, FL

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Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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