Hampered by climate change, rising temperatures, and beach erosion, endangered sea turtle populations already face an uphill battle. But in the past three years, South Florida environmental non-profit MORAES discovered another blight on sea turtle conservation –an overpopulation of raccoons.
Human trash isn’t the only thing feasted upon by the local raccoons. Each sea turtle season presents a buffet of eggs for Virginia Key’s furry residents.
“In 2023, over 60% of our sea turtle nests on Virginia Key were interfered with by raccoons,” said TJ Morrell, director of operations of MORAES.
While some nests are only partially eaten, some nests are picked clean. Morrell and his team estimated that over 2,000 sea turtles have been lost to raccoon predation.
Raccoons are the natural predators of sea turtle eggs and are native to the ecosystem. But their growing population may be biting off more than our native sea turtles can handle.
MORAES started observing raccoon populations after they received an official sea turtle permit for Virginia Key in 2022. While conducting daily sea turtle beach monitoring in compliance with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) standards, the MORAES team began noticing an upward tick in raccoons in Historic Virginia Key Beach and started documenting raccoon interference around sea turtle nests from 2022 to 2024.
“It’s kind of a difficult situation because we don’t want to do anything that essentially favors one species over another, especially because raccoons are a native species,” Morrell said. “They belong on the beach there. They have just as much reason to be out there as the sea turtles do.”
Morrell’s team attempted to deter raccoons by placing cages over sea turtle nests. But, just as they know how to open trash cans and food containers, the clever animals learned quickly how to remove the man-made barriers.
To help mitigate the damage to sea turtle nests from raccoons, MORAES is preparing a novel solution: relocate raccoons to areas of greater need and lesser raccoon populations in the Everglades, such as the Tree Islands.
There’s an eight-year continuous trail camera within the Everglades that has tracked wildlife and confirmed a drastic reduction of raccoon populations. Cross-referencing that information with Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK), MORAES has planned to transfer Virginia Key raccoons to a place they could thrive naturally.
Starting Friday, MORAES will begin setting up camera trails along highly trafficked raccoon paths in Historic Virginia Key Beach and doing assessments of raccoon populations. The assessment will help determine how many raccoons MORAES will need to trap and release.
They are also currently looking to add wildlife experts to their team to make sure the assessment and relocation process is done correctly without disturbing the ecosystem.
The non-profit is currently fundraising for $10,000 to support their mission to protect sea turtle conservation efforts on the barrier island. They are currently partnered with the Turtl Project and Historic Virginia Key Beach and are looking for more sponsor support.
Those interested in getting involved can find more information on MORAES Safe Hatch Initiative page.
“We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to find someone who can help us do this, and then make a dramatic difference for the sea turtles right here in Virginia Key.”
This story was originally published in the Key Biscayne Independent, a WLRN News partner.
