TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. — Sea turtle nesting season is ramping up on Gulf Coast beaches and Ambassadors with Keep Pinellas Beautiful are doing their part to ensure it’s a successful season.
What started as a way to keep Treasure Island clean for Carrie Auerbac, has turned into a mission to protect the sea turtles.
“It’s such an incredible thing that endangered sea turtles come up onto our beaches,” Auerbac said. “Florida hosts 90 percent of all the sea turtle nesting in the United States.”
She’s a beach ambassador for Keep Pinellas Beautiful and after every busy holiday, she does her part to clean up any trash left behind.
“It’s early in the season, there may be four or five nests here on Treasure Island, as you go further south there are a lot more, and over on the east coast they’re flourishing, I think they’re having the best year so far,” Auerbac said.
To protect them, she says it’s important to educate beachgoers on how they can help the turtles reach the dunes.
“If there’s artificial light, they’ll turn around and go the wrong way,” Auerbac said.
She also says beachgoers should flatten sandcastles and fill any holes to prevent turtles from getting trapped.
For beachgoers like Mareena Clark, it’s important to protect the space she enjoys.
“We love the beach and we want to treat it with kindness and respect so that we can keep coming here and enjoying it,” she said.
Last year, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium reported a record-breaking turtle nesting season, documenting more than 400 nests. It was nearly double the 2024 total, which was impacted by the severe hurricane season.
This year Auerbach hopes to see those numbers grow.
“We’ve got these awesome dunes that were planted and they’re flourishing,” she said. “It would be just so great to see more nests like this up in the dunes. It just makes me really happy to see something like that.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has also released some tips for families that plan to visit the beach this Memorial Day weekend.