St. Vincent Island saw a big drop in sea turtle nests and hatchlings during the 2018 season.

St. Vincent Island saw a big drop in sea turtle nests and hatchlings during the 2018 season.

The numbers were released in the recent Friends of the Reserve newsletter.

There were 37 seas turtle nest found on the island last year, down from 128 for each of the past 2 years.

Its estimated there were about 1560 hatchlings.

That is also a big drop from previous years, in 2017 over 6600 baby turtles successfully hatched at St. Vincent.

The Friends said they do not have an easy explanation for the substantial nest production differences which occurred in 2018.

While weather did play a factor, both major storms last year happened either before or after the main nesting season.

Tropical Storm Alberto hit on May 28th, and later Hurricane Michael hit on October 10th when few nests were on the island.

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