Turtle nesting on adjacent nourished beaches with different construction styles: Pinellas County, Florida

Successful nesting of loggerhead turtles is an important aspect of beach ma nagement along the Gulf Coast of Florida. A detailed time series of beach m onitoring has provided a wealth of data on turtle nesting and resistance to penetration in order to assess the effect of beach nourishment on turtle n esting. Three adjacent, nourished beaches, and nearby unnourished beaches p rovided the locations for systematic measurement of conditions. Two years o f data are provided, 1994 and 1995, with the latter including tilling of th e nourished beach on one of the projects. Nesting density increased from 1994 to 1995. Although cone penetrometer mea surements routinely exceeded guidelines for turtle nesting, the turtles pai d no attention to compaction. The nature of the sediment with large quantit ies of bivalve fragments is such that although vertical penetration is very difficult, the style of digging by turtles experiences little resistance. Data provided in this study indicate that the current guidelines based on c one penetrometer data for nesting in highly compacted beaches are incorrect . Nourished beaches on the Gulf Coast of Florida do not inhibit turtle nest ing, they encourage it by providing a wide, dry beach.