What happened when two back-to-back hurricanes hit Florida last year?
Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast only 13 days apart, spreading widespread devastation across coastal communities, barrier islands and shorelines. After making landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region on Sept. 27, Helene flooded neighborhoods along the Gulf Coast on its way to Georgia and North Carolina. Milton made landfall near Siesta Key on Oct. 9 and continued across Florida, downing trees, causing flooding and spawning deadly tornadoes.
Is Florida’s wildlife equipped with adaptations to survive a hurricane?
Florida’s native wildlife is adapted to extreme weather, but can be overwhelmed during powerful storms which are expected to become more frequent due to a changing climate and warming coastal waters. Manatees can be washed inland by storm surges and become trapped in places like farm fields, golf courses and retention ponds when the water recedes. Birds can be blown off-course or out of trees by high winds.
Sea turtles are also uniquely impacted by storms. Sea turtles have survived in their current form for more than 110 million years — since dinosaurs roamed the earth. Females lay between 80 and 120 eggs per nest, depending on the species, producing clutches in different positions on beaches, spaced weeks apart. Buried two feet deep, it takes the eggs about 60 days to hatch. Spacing out eggs across location and time boosts their odds of survival until hatchlings emerge and make their way to the ocean.
During those 60 days, any storm is a threat. Surges, heavy rains and strong winds increase the chance that nests will be flooded or washed away. Dune erosion from hurricanes exposes eggs to the elements and predators, as well as damaging beaches in other ways. Beaches without healthy dunes can be exposed to manmade light that disorients hatchling and nesting sea turtles, causing them to go inland instead of towards the ocean.
What were sea turtles doing when Helene and Milton hit, and how did these storms affect their nesting?
Hurricane season in Florida lasts from June to the end of November, which coincides with sea turtle nesting season, which peaks in summer before slowing down in October. While these storms washed out many of the remaining sea turtle nests, they hit later in the nesting season, when the majority of baby turtles had made their way to the ocean. Even so, hatchlings can wash back from strong tides, along with plastic and other debris that can harm turtles and their habitat.
What do we know about sea turtle populations before and after these storms?
Prior to Helene and Milton, sea turtle populations were doing well in Florida. Florida beaches are globally significant for sea turtle nesting and host the world’s most important nesting site of loggerheads, about 40% of the world’s nesting population. Florida beaches are also regionally important for green turtles and leatherbacks, the largest sea turtles in the world.
While most sea turtle clutches had already hatched before the hurricanes arrived, nearly all remaining nests were flooded or washed away. The intensity of Helene and Milton leveled dunes to flat areas of sand on some nesting beaches along the Gulf Coast. If a stretch of beach remains flat by the next sea turtle nesting season, new nests can be at greater risk of damage and leave sea turtles exposed to additional threats.
What are the next steps for sea turtles, people and Florida’s ecosystems?
Continued sea turtle recovery depends on healthy habitats at sea and on nesting beaches, as well as reduced harm from fisheries. A changing climate is creating its own threats, from more frequent and intense hurricanes as well as warming sands. We must ensure that the Endangered Species Act may continue to protect endangered species and must advocate for climate-friendly policies.
In Florida, state and local governments continue to permit development in hurricane and flood-prone areas, failing to protect the public from natural disasters. Natural habitats like barrier beaches and healthy mangrove forests can buffer communities. Wetlands absorb flood waters. We need advocates for increased funding for programs to increase natural resiliency that will help people as well as wildlife.
People can take personal actions to help sea turtles: Turn out lights visible from the beach, clean up beach trash, avoid sea turtle nesting areas, reduce usage of single use plastics and volunteer with a local sea turtle program.
Anyone who sees an injured, entangled or dead sea turtle should report it to the FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922).
Author
Elizabeth Fleming
Wildlife & Wild Places
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