Green Turtle Nesting in Florida

Nesting Green Turtle — Photo Credit: Cheryl L. Sanchez

Green turtle nesting in Florida occurs primarily from June through late September. Every two to three years, a female will return to the nesting beach—often the same one she visited before—and lay an average of 3.6 clutches in a season (Witherington et al., 2006). A clutch averages about 128 eggs (Brost et al., 2015). The green turtle's name derives not from the color of its shell—olive-brown with dark streaks and spots—but from the greenish color of its body fat. On average, these sea turtles weigh 300 - 350 pounds and have a shell length of 3 feet.

Although nesting activity has been recorded in almost every coastal county in Florida, most green turtle nesting is concentrated along the southeast coast of Florida. To view green turtle nest density by beach, see the Statewide Atlas of Sea Turtle Nesting Occurrence and Density.

Map of Green Turtle Nest Density — Green turtle nest density (measured in number of nests per kilometer of beach) by genetic subunit in Florida during the last five-year period (2011-2015). High-density beaches are those having the top 25 percent of density values (red); low-density beaches have the lowest 25 percent (yellow); and beaches with densities between these two categories are defined medium-density beaches (orange). White indicates beaches where green turtles were not observed to have nested during the five-year period.

View Statewide Green Turtle Nesting Data

Citations

Brost, B., B. Witherington, A. Meylan, E. Leone, L. Ehrhart, and D. Bagley. 2015. Sea turtle hatchling production from Florida (USA) beaches, 2002-2012, with recommendations for analyzing hatching success. Endangered Species Research 27:53-68.

Witherington, B., M. Bresette, and R. Herren. 2006. Chelonia mydas — Green Turtle. In: Biology and Conservation of Florida Turtles, P.A. Meylan, Ed. Chelonian Research Monographs 3:90-104.