HUTCHINSON ISLAND Engineers for years have piled sand from the ocean onto eroded beaches to create what they considered a darn good approximation of a natural beach. Turtles weren't fooled. Mothers-to-be crawling up renourished beaches showed their displeasure by turning around and laying their eggs elsewhere. <\/p>\n
\"Typically, the first year after a beach is renourished, there are more false crawls,\" said Eric Martin, scientific director and vice president for Ecological Associates turtle-research consultants in Jensen Beach. <\/p>\n
False crawls are turtles' movements onto a beach, but without egg-laying. <\/p>\n
\"It takes a lot of energy for a turtle to come ashore,\" said Robert Ernest, the firm's president. \"If she has to do that repeatedly, she may lay fewer eggs.\" <\/p>\n
To reduce false crawls, and enhance survival of endangered sea turtles, the Army Corps of Engineers this year is launching a pilot program along Martin County beaches on Hutchinson Island. Eight quarter-mile sections of the four-mile stretch of beach will be renourished in the usual style. That involves pumping sand from the ocean to create a broad, flat beach that drops off sharply near the water line. Between each conventional section will be a quarter mile section of \"turtle friendly\" beach. These sections also will be built from offshore sand, but with the continuous, gradual slope of a natural beach. The monthlong project is slated to start in March and end in April, just before the start of turtle-nesting season. <\/p>\n
\"Martin County is a great area to have this study because it has such a high nesting density,\" said Shelley Trulock, the Jacksonville-based project manager for the Army Corps. <\/p>\n
Impetus for the pilot program stretches back to the 1990s, when researchers discovered turtle nesting success declined along renourished beaches. <\/p>\n
\"We think it has to do with what the turtle visualizes,\" Martin said. \"The dune horizon seems to be very important. With a flat slope, the dune horizon is set back a considerable distance.\" <\/p>\n
Martin and his colleagues shared their discovery with several stakeholders, including the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which worked with Environmental Associates to develop the turtle-friendly pilot program. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation provided a $600,000 grant to fund turtle-nesting studies along the renourished beaches over the next two years. <\/p>\n
A key concern was whether the turtle-friendly beach profile would stand up to storms as well as the standard, renourished profile. Trulock put the question to computer models simulating storm impacts. <\/p>\n
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Martin to be testing ground for turtle-friendly renourished beaches<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HUTCHINSON ISLAND Engineers for years have piled sand from the ocean onto eroded beaches to create what they considered a darn good approximation of a natural beach. Turtles weren't fooled Continue reading