Is There a Future for Sea Turtle Nesting on Marco?

Ever since the “Tigertail Berm Project” was approved by Florida Dept. Environmental Protection (FDEP) and financially supported by the County’s Tourist Development Council (TDC), all wildlife on the berm has been assailed by human activity. 

Each year a company produces a “report” on the project as part of the project’s legal requirement. Reading these ‘project booster’ reports, one wonders how the authors get some “facts.” For example, the section of the 2025 report that deals with turtle nesting, says “they had a 30% success rate on top of the constructed berm.” I analyzed the raw data collected by Fish and Wildlife (FWC) and plotted the results. 

Crawls that failed to produce a nest are deemed “false crawls.” In the beach section that contains the heart of the berm there were 138 crawls, 10% of which resulted in a nest. In the beach section immediately south of the berm, there were 99 crawls, 45% of which resulted in a nest. It is clear that the berm is bad for turtle success rate. 

Pointing out the actual facts to the reporting company and responsible agencies produced silence in response. Please do not take ‘eco-friendly’ claims of officials and candidates at face value.