Hurricane Dorian washes away sea turtles, eggs

MELBOURNE, Fla. (FOX 35 ORLANDO) - Several people tried to save baby sea turtles and eggs on Coconut Point Beach, Wednesday, after Hurricane Dorian brought severe weather to the coast.

Loumari Rivera saw hundreds of baby turtles on the beach that didn’t survive. She also saw several destroyed eggs.

“It was really bad, so many nests were destroyed,” she said.

Rivera was able to save one baby turtle and released it into the ocean. Additionally, she buried intact eggs in dry sand, which experts recommend in this situation. According to sea turtle experts, the storm will have an effect on this year’s sea turtle population.

“Unfortunately, we had a lot of nests out there when the storm passed by us and so a lot of those eggs that were buried in the sand got washed out. That is a loss as far as the total population count for the summer,” said Jennifer Winters, Volusia County sea turtle habitat conservation plan manager.

Fortunately, nesting numbers were high earlier in the season. “Most of those nests already hatched and made their way off of our beaches equaling an average year.”