Bahia Honda Saves Nature and Fascinating Turtles

Bahia Honda State Park, home of four different species of turtles. Many species of turtles are endangered species, being that said Bahia Honda tries to protect the ones that come to nest to their beach. The work that they are doing is not comparable to other places where this is huge and they have a lot of species nesting, but Bahia Honda takes pride to be a place that has much diversity in their ecosystem and many species are being protected simustaneously.

The shoreline of Bahia Honda offers 2.5 miles of natural habitat for turtles to lay their eggs. Surveys are conducted every year from April to October to record if any new nest has been made. Loggerhead sea turtle is the most regular on the bay, starting to lay its eggs in April and being the one that creates the most nests through the season. Also, green sea turtles have been at the bay many times. One of the most surprising nest was of a leatherback turtle. On 2016 a nest was discovered and again on 2018 another nest was found. Bahia Honda is very safe for turtles to lay their eggs and it is hoped that the number of leatherback turtle nests will grow. Finally the last specie of turtle found nesting in Bahia Honda was a Hawksbill. This nest was the rearest nest ever found on Bahia Honda and has only been recorded one nest of this turtle throughout the past years. Park Rangers have been monitoring this turtle and make sure to keep track of her when she comes back to visit. Bahia Honda has been home to the only documented nest of this specie of turtle in the contiental United States.

But you might be asking how come only one Hawksbill has nested in Bahia Honda. And the answer is that this type of turtle has been in the endagerment list since 1970 and then in 1973 it was relisted as critically endangered, facing an extremely risk of extinction in the future. But if you think about it they have been 46 years listed as an endangered specie so that is why it is rarely seen. It is concerning to know that this specie at anytime could be compleately gone! But with the help of Bahia Honda and their safe nesting program hopefully in the future this specie will recover.

Sources:
Bahia Honda
https://www.floridastateparks.org/learn/sea-turtles-bahia-honda
https://conserveturtles.org/information-about-sea-turtles-hawksbill-sea-turtle/