Environmental specialist digs up sea turtle nest

* Markus Hennig, an environmental specialist with Collier County Parks and Recreation, measures the depth and width of a sea turtle nest at Vanderbilt Beach in North Naples on August 6, 2009. Hennig was going to dig up the 20-inch deep nest Wednesday after the sea turtles hatched on August 3. In all, 106 eggs were in the nest. Hennig tracks the amount of sea turtles that hatched as well as the ones that didn't make it. He has seen a decline in recent years of how many nests are on Vanderbilt Beach. This year, only about 60 nests are on the beach he tracks while in the past he has had up to 90. Greg Kahn/Staff
* Markus Hennig, an environmental specialist with Collier County Parks and Recreation, clears a marked off area denoting a sea turtle nest at Vanderbilt Beach in North Naples on August 6, 2009. Hennig was going to dig up the nest Wednesday after the sea turtles hatched on August 3, 53 days after the nest was made. Hennig tracks the amount of sea turtles that hatched as well as the ones that didn't make it. He has seen a decline in recent years of how many nests are on Vanderbilt Beach. This year, only about 60 nests are on the beach he tracks while in the past he has had up to 90. Greg Kahn/Staff
* Markus Hennig, an environmental specialist with Collier County Parks and Recreation, clears a marked off area denoting a sea turtle nest at Vanderbilt Beach in North Naples on August 6, 2009. Hennig was going to dig up the nest Wednesday after the sea turtles hatched on August 3, 53 days after the nest was made. Hennig tracks the amount of sea turtles that hatched as well as the ones that didn't make it. He has seen a decline in recent years of how many nests are on Vanderbilt Beach. This year, only about 60 nests are on the beach he tracks while in the past he has had up to 90. Greg Kahn/Staff
* A sea turtle nest is marked off near the dunes at Vanderbilt Beach in North Naples on August 6, 2009. Nesting season for the sea turtles begins to taper off in August. Greg Kahn/Staff
* A sea turtle nest is marked off near the dunes at Vanderbilt Beach in North Naples on August 6, 2009. Nesting season for the sea turtles begins to taper off in August. Greg Kahn/Staff

* Markus Hennig, an environmental specialist with Collier County Parks and Recreation, holds a sea turtle fetus, one of five in unhatched eggs in a nest he dug up at Vanderbilt Beach in North Naples on August 6, 2009. Hennig tracks the amount of sea turtles that hatch as well as the ones that didn't make it. He said he has seen a decline in recent years of how many nests are on Vanderbilt Beach. This year, only about 60 nests are on the beach he tracks while in the past he has had up to 90. Greg Kahn/Staff
* Markus Hennig, an environmental specialist with Collier County Parks and Recreation, counts hatched sea turtle eggs at Vanderbilt Beach in North Naples on August 6, 2009. Hennig dug up the nest Wednesday after the sea turtles hatched on August 3. Hennig tracks the amount of sea turtles that hatched as well as the ones that didn't make it. He has seen a decline in recent years of how many nests are on Vanderbilt Beach. This year, only about 60 nests are on the beach he tracks while in the past he has had up to 90. Greg Kahn/Staff
* Markus Hennig, an environmental specialist with Collier County Parks and Recreation, holds one of the unhatched eggs from a sea turtle nest at Vanderbilt Beach in North Naples on August 6, 2009. Hennig dug up the nest Wednesday after the sea turtles hatched on August 3, 53 days after the nest was made. Hennig tracks the amount of sea turtles that hatched as well as the ones that didn't make it. He has seen a decline in recent years of how many nests are on Vanderbilt Beach. This year, only about 60 nests are on the beach he tracks while in the past he has had up to 90. Greg Kahn/Staff

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Documents

* Lee County Outdoor Lighting Code
* Collier County 2007 Sea Turtle Monitoring Report

COLLIER COUNTY — At 6:30 a.m., the sand on Vanderbilt Beach is void of yesterday’s footprints and sand castles as the sun rises over downtown Naples to the south.

Only the tracks of an ATV run in a straight line down the beach as Markus Hennig, an environmental specialist for Collier County Parks and Recreation, services the 60 sea turtle nests lining the coast of the beach.

Hennig patrols a portion of the 23.7 miles of beach the Collier sea turtle protection program oversees. He spends every morning during nesting season tracking the progress of the nests looking for signs of tampering by humans and wildlife, ensuring that the turtle hatchlings have the highest possible chance of survival.

But Hennig and the sea turtle protection program may not be able to stop Collier County’s most common sea turtle from being listed as an endangered species, and soon. Loggerhead turtles are the only sea turtle native to the U.S. listed as threatened on the endangered species list. All others are listed as endangered, but nesting trends don’t look promising for loggerheads.

“They are in the process of upgrading the loggerhead to endangered,” said Maura Kraus, Collier County sea turtle protection program coordinator. “It hasn’t happened yet, but it will.”

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