Tortuguero Costa Rica Transportation

Marine turtle nesting season along Brevard’s coasts—from the mother turtles’ nocturnal crawls to lay their eggs through the hatchings’ mad dash toward the waves—occurs each year primarily from May 1st through October 31st. During this time, construction activities are avoided on the beach in order to protect habitat for nesting and hatching sea turtles. Mother turtles come ashore in the dark, dig a hole using their flippers, and lay 100-150 eggs at a time in these “nests”. During the course of a season, a single female lays multiple nests, usually 3-8. After a 45–70 day gestation period, hatchlings emerge from the nest under the cover of darkness and follow the light of the moon reflecting off the ocean. If beach construction is underway or anticipated during the nesting season, daily surveys are performed during the pre-dawn and early morning hours between March 1 and April 30 in search of any early nests. Once turtle nesting season begins on May 1st, the entire Brevard County coast from Port Canaveral to Sebastian Inlet is monitored daily until turtle nesting season ends on October 31st.  Under normal circumstances, no beach construction activities are permitted during this time. To protect late-season nests, any beach construction planned for the period after nesting season but before November 15th requires daily monitoring beginning 65 days prior to the onset of construction activities.