South Florida’s beaches are having a season for the record books. State biologists have documented an unprecedented 2,152 leatherback sea turtle nests across Florida, a figure that, once confirmed, would stand as a new statewide record for the massive, deep-diving species.
Loggerheads are surging, too. Researchers counted 94,667 loggerhead nests statewide by the end of June, the highest end-of-June tally recorded in the past five years, putting the state’s most common nesting turtle on track for a potential record season of its own.
The boom is concentrated in South Florida. Scientists monitoring Boca Raton’s shoreline have documented 42 leatherback nests, more than double the area’s typical annual average and the most ever recorded there. Palm Beach County ranks among the most important leatherback nesting zones in the continental United States, and researchers believe the county’s proximity to the Gulf Stream may help draw nesting females ashore. To the south, Broward County conservation groups are likewise reporting a strong nesting season along the county’s monitored beaches.
What Beachgoers Should Know
Florida’s nesting season runs March through the end of October, which means August visitors are walking beaches at the height of hatchling activity. The staked-off nests dotting the sand from Key Biscayne to Jupiter are now releasing tiny loggerheads, greens and leatherbacks that scramble to the surf under cover of darkness.
Wildlife officials ask residents and visitors to keep beachfront lights off or shielded at night, since artificial light can disorient hatchlings and send them toward parking lots instead of the ocean. Filling in holes, flattening sandcastles and packing out beach furniture at day’s end also clears the runway for the next wave of hatchlings. For photographers, the season offers some of the most striking wildlife imagery South Florida produces: tracks like tire treads running from dune to waterline, and palm-sized hatchlings silhouetted against the dawn surf.
Whether 2026 finishes as an all-around record year will not be known until surveys wrap up this fall, but researchers say the early numbers point to one of the strongest seasons since standardized counts began, a hopeful sign for species that remain federally protected.
