With grayt gratitude from our friends at South Walton Turtle Watch:
And just like that, our 2026 nesting season has come to an end. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for our final weeks.
Hurricane Isaias brought a heartbreaking conclusion to an already challenging season. All 8 nests still incubating when the hurricane arrived were lost. Combined with Tropical Storm Bertha, our nesting beaches endured an incredibly difficult year.
Our hearts go out to everyone impacted by Isaias. A tremendous THANK YOU to our emergency responders, recovery crews, and especially the power linemen working tirelessly to restore power and help our communities recover. We are incredibly grateful!
2026 BY THE NUMBERS
68 Nests
53 Loggerhead (CC)
15 Green (CM)
35 False Crawls
26 Loggerhead
9 Green
NESTING BY AREA
Miramar Beach: 9 nests | 3 FC
West 30A: 27 nests | 18 FC
Middle 30A: 17 nests | 14 FC
East 30A: 15 nests | 0 FC
HATCHING SUCCESS
Hatch Success: 42.5%
Emergence Success: 41.3%
Average Incubation: 59 days
These numbers reflect significant storm impacts, particularly the loss of nests during the latter half of our season.
STORM IMPACTS
31 complete washouts
24 nests washed over by storm tides
6 partial washouts
SURVEY DEDICATION
Despite challenging conditions, our teams missed only 5 survey days all season! We also documented 440 no-activity reports.
SEASON MILESTONES
May 12: First crawl — Loggerhead false crawl
May 28: First nest — Loggerhead, Miramar Beach
August 30: Last nest — Green, Middle 30A
To our incredible volunteers, nest adopters, donors, partners, local agencies, and community: THANK YOU for showing up for our sea turtles!
This season brought early mornings, relentless heat, storms, and some heartbreaking losses. But conservation isn’t measured by one season alone.
Every nest protected, hatchling safely reaching the Gulf, and person educated makes a difference. We cannot control the storms, but we CAN control how we care for our beaches. #CleanDarkFlat – Our season may be over, but our commitment never ends.
