For the past few weeks, wildlife teams and volunteers along Florida’s Treasure Coast have been carefully relocating more than 4,100 sea turtle eggs from 45 nests to keep them safe from upcoming beach restoration work.
Since March, crews have transferred 3,984 eggs from 44 leatherback nests and another 122 eggs from one loggerhead nest.
Both leatherback and loggerhead turtles are endangered species that have faced serious threats from shoreline development, boat collisions, and discarded fishing gear.
Even after the severe 2024 hurricane season destroyed hundreds of nests, recent conservation work has helped sea turtles recover. In fact, 2025 turned out to be Florida’s best year on record for leatherback nesting.
At the same time, coastal restoration projects remain necessary because erosion can damage beaches and surrounding ecosystems, creating even more danger for nesting turtles. But those same projects can also threaten nests if they happen during breeding season.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has explained that beach renourishment often involves bringing in large amounts of sand. If that sand is too compact or different from the natural beach, it can interfere with turtle nesting behavior. Heavy equipment can also bury nests too deeply or crush them if work is done while turtles are laying eggs.
To avoid that outcome, beach monitors have been working intensely to move nests out of the construction zone.
According to Joseph Scarola, a senior scientist and sea turtle lighting specialist with Ecological Associates Inc., crews begin patrolling the beaches each night at 9 p.m.
When a nesting turtle is found, the monitoring team alerts the relocation crew and marks the exact site. Each egg is then lifted by hand and placed into a sand-filled container, taking care not to rotate it. Workers also record the original nest’s shape and depth so they can rebuild it as accurately as possible at the new location, which is kept secret to protect the eggs from poachers.
Beyond relocating nests, local conservationists are also tackling another major problem: artificial light along the shore.
The Fish and Wildlife Commission says sea turtles seek out dark, quiet beaches to nest. Bright lights from nearby buildings can confuse them, and if a turtle becomes too disturbed, she may return to the ocean before fully covering and hiding her nest.
Officials say that the more obstacles humans remove, the greater the chances sea turtles have of nesting successfully.