The Essential Beachcomber

  (Photo Credit:  Meghan McCarthy / Daily News File Photo) While most people follow the traditional spring, summer, fall, & winter seasons;  Here on Manasota Key we observe two seasons - Lights on and Lights off.  May 1 is the official start of Lights off or better known as Sea Turtle Nesting Season.  Most beach side Manasota Key Motels, condos, & homeowners have already made the annual move to shield all outdoor lights visible from the beac h.  Sea turtle hatchlings have a natural instinct to move towards the brightest direction. On a natural beach, the brightest direction is most often the expansive view of the night sky over, and reflected by the ocean .   Environmental lighting on the beach such as street lights, outdoor lighting on buildings, and even a lamp shining from a living room window can confuse the mother coming ashore to lay her eggs and the baby hatchlings some eight weeks later looking for their way to the sea. Sea tur...

Sargassum seaweed has piled up on Blind Pass Beach in Englewood, Florida. Seaweed is piling up on the beaches of SWFL.  It's called sargassum or aka "gulfweed" and it's typically found out in the deep blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  Tropical Storm Debby not only rearranged our beaches with the storm erosion but she is now redecorating with a scratchy, matted carpet of sargassum seaweed.  It don't smell so good either. Found mostly in the Atlantic Ocean and  greatly concentrated in the Sargasso Sea, Sargassum seaweed's name originated from it's grape-like appearance which Portuguese sailor's called salgazo.  Huge rafts of sargassum naturally float about a mile off the shores of our SWFL beaches.  It acts as a transport system of sorts floating thousands of miles around the Gulf Stream current.  Marine life off all kinds take refuge and find survival in sargassum weed.   Sargassum is the destination of baby turtle hatchlings once they...

The coolest sea turtle evah! One of the most marvelous sites you'll ever see on the Gulf coast of Florida is a sea turtle crawling  up the beach to make a nest and lay her eggs.  The female turtle uses her flippers to dig her nest and deposit about 100 ping-pong sized eggs.  She then uses her flippers to cover & camouflage the nest then returns to the sea leaving behind her brood to hatch on their own in approximately 8 weeks.  Most turtle babies hatch at night.  They depend on the moon & stars over the Gulf of Mexico to guide them back to the water.   The trek from the nest to the beach can be treacherous for the hatchings due to predators like raccoons, fire ants, & sea birds, beach furniture and sand sculptures, & artificial lighting from condos & street lights.  In an effort to help the turtle population grow most coastal communities have laws in place to limit the environmental lighting from May 1 through Oc...